Tag: Germany

Volume 2, Day 96

Does my last day in Europe even count as a day if I am getting on an airplane at 9am? Summer is over and the European phase of my global rambles come to an end. I awoke to the buzzing of my mobile phone under my pillow at 5 am to catch the 5:32 suburban commuter train to Mannheim, where I then transferred to an ICE towards Frankfurt Airport. In typical German fashion, the high speed train climbed upwards of 100km an hour before stopping and waiting on the tracks for ten minutes for what I can only assume a freight train to pass by. The German businessman sitting across from me glibly commented that you can never rely on the train schedules to catch connections. At least, I assume that’s what he said; I only caught the word “umsteigen” which means to change trains.

It was fine, though. The train drops you off right in front of the airport and a shuttle bus carried me to Terminal 2 where I checked in via the self service terminal and gaped at the long line for the baggage drop. Realizing a little too late that I was actually flying priority, I waltzed straight up to a counter to get rid of my single checked suitcase. It was a little surprising to get the third-degree from the airline employee about my trip and where I went (clearly legally mandated rather than just small talk).

The shops were between the border check (which went smoothly) and the security check, which did not. I waited 10 minutes to get my bags as the elderly couple in front of me had to endure the humiliation of security personnel pulling every single item out of their bag and questioning “what’s this?” After a consultation with guards carrying assault rifles, they had to surrender some sort of cheese that was packed in a tiny amount of brine.

It was my turn to get yelled at afterwards for not pulling separating my phone charger and (honestly) forgetting that I had sunblock in my backpack. The agent pulled out a plastic ziplock bag, put the sunblock in and warned me to follow the rules next time.

The flight was not bad. I was able to watch four movies despite their decision to reboot the entertainment system (which takes 30 minutes). It was funny how American the flight attendants were. The little card on my seat said there was a choice of chicken with orzo or a vegetarian Indian curry for the meal service, but when they worked their way down the aisle, the choice was “chicken or pasta.” I asked for chicken, but as they were down to their last chicken, a different attendant asked “would you mind taking the curry instead.” Of course not, but that wasn’t the choice the near retirement age flight attendant presented. How white can that woman be that she sees some “ethnic” food she doesn’t recognize and just calls it pasta.

The downside of the flight was that I was in the window seat and the guy sitting next to me slept most of the flight, trapping me. I could see the cart in the galley with snacks and wine bottles and I couldn’t get reach it like some sort of punishment in Greek mythology.

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Coffee/croissant	3.48
Train	21.9
Total:	25.38 EUR (198 RMB) (USD 27.85)

Running Total: 35311.7 RMB (USD 4966.41)
Daily Average: 367.8 RMB (USD 51.73)

The flight is a sort of special circumstance, so it won’t be included in the grand total of things. Still, its a little disappointing that I couldn’t break under 50 USD a day on spending. I’ll have to go back to Japan where it is so much cheaper.

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Anyways, that will be it for the travel blogging for a while. Stay tuned for a possible Volume 3!

Volume 2, Days 93-95

My last stop before I leave Germany and I have run out of energy to do any of my regular traveling activities, like visiting museums or studying German. Like a Sunday afternoon marred by the thought of school in the morning, I couldn’t really bring myself to enjoy–well–myself. It didn’t help that my first day was somewhat fubar.

My last morning in Freiburg was fine as it goes. I cooked up a hot breakfast to finish off the eggs, cheese, pepper, and one onion. Though I made a valiant effort to generously pour sriracha hot sauce into the eggs, it occurred to me that buying the hot sauce was probably a pour investment. I did enjoy adding it generously to the veggies, curries, and what not I cooked, but I didn’t cook enough to get even close to using it up. The balsamic vinegar on the other hand, though it would be hard to finish off at least served me well through dozens of salads.

I packed up, checked out, and paid for the street car over to the train station, where I found my bus waiting a full 20 minutes before its departure time. I settled in with the ambitions to work on my computer. Shortly before departing, some guy decided to sit next to me (though I swear there were empty rows). He proceeded to manspread and gradually encroach on my personal space by that classic move of “taking a nap.” I couldn’t really maneuver with my computer and spent the 3 hour journey increasingly feeling claustrophobic as the guy behind me felt that sprawling out across two seats wasn’t enough and decided to make a punching bag of the back of my seat.

I was in a pretty bad mood when I reached Heidelberg, but at least the bus stop was literally 50 steps from the hostel. The hostel, on the third and fourth floor of an old warehouse (now office building), gave me some shit about not having “Bestatigung” (confirmation) of my booking. I had contacted the hostel through the same platform I booked many independent hostels in Germany. A staff replied confirming the price. I replied saying “Fine, go ahead with the booking.” They said okay. What more confirmation did I need? Well, apparently someone was supposed to add me to the system. I suppose I was lucky that school had already started because if the hostel had no vacancies I would have been up the creek. They also demanded a credit card for

Up in the room, I had another snafu to deal with. The room was fine, but I needed some internet (my Flixbus was without). So, with the Monday morning flight from Frankfurt on my mind and staying in Heidelberg until Monday morning, I needed to double check how to get to the airport in time for my flight. I had booked a Flixbus for the early morning which would deliver me to the airport 2.5 hours early, but when I was double checking when I’d have to wake up, I realized that I only had an hour. In my inbox was a string of emails explaining that the cancelled my bus and rebooked me on a later bus and if that booking didn’t work for me I could manually manage my booking through their website. The catch, of course, is that by forcing me to cancel the booking, they get to apply their cancellation fee and keep all my money, giving me only 1-point-something euro worth of credit for another trip. What a scam. Since there were no viable other Flixbus options, I had to go through Deutsche Bahn and prebook the train. I suppose the upside is that I will get to experience the ICE (high speed train).

I set out to explore a bit of Heidelberg, discovering that although my hostel is very accessible to the main train station (3 minutes by foot) it is a good 15 minute walk to the edge of the old town. As Heidelberg is also famous for having one of the longest pedestrian streets (over a mile) in Germany, it is another 15 minutes to the heart of old town. It was nice, but definitely affected how much and when I would bother going all the way “downtown.”

I grabbed an ice cream to cheer me up. It didn’t really, should have gone for chocolate over the fruit flavors. The weather was fine and I should have stayed out longer to enjoy it (being the last time I would see the sun before leaving Germany), but I was hungry and eager to use the sizable guest kitchen in the hostel.

I passed up a Penny, a Rewe and an Aldi on the way back because I spotted a Kaufland on the map (and it happened to be the closest to the hostel). Feeling a desperate need to eat as much German food as possible, I decided to make my own Kasespaetzle and kicked myself upon realizing that I should have kept an onion or two (I “donated” my extra onions to the free food shelf in Freiburg thinking I wouldn’t be able to use up the last couple). I made do with a package of Schwabian-style spaetzle, shredded cheese (Kasespaetzle blend) and seasoned butter. I also grabbed a package of Weisswurst and a couple pretzels after staring at the sausage aisle a long time. Needless to say, several beers were purchased as well, including an impulse buy of a 1L bottle of super-local brewed stuff (in a 2 euro deposit bottle!).

I had a little party unto myself and ate enough food for 3 or 4 people. I seriously overate. It was bad. Meanwhile, a package tour group mostly composed of gray haired Germans checked into the hostel, many of them poked their head into the kitchen and asked if it was the breakfast room. Nope, that is upstairs.

As I was watching shows on my computer in a dazed state in the lounge (a separate room next to the kitchen), two other travelers came in. They were from Belgium and actually staying in my 10-bed dorm room. As we were lightly chatting, another fellow came in while making a phone call with his airbuds (is that the Apple term?). The girls were just typical college students on a weekend trip, but he was interesting–born in Lagos, traveled a lot as a kid with a tennis pro mom, spent last dozen years in Germany. We played a game of chess. I lost, but in my defense, I was impaired. I never got a chance for a rematch.

We all headed up to the room at the same time, each individually arriving at the decision that it was bedtime.

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Tram	2.4
Flixbus	14.14
Hostel	66
Eis	3
Kaufland	16
Total:	101.54 EUR (792 RMB) (USD 111.20)

Running Total: 33918.2 RMB (USD 4762.45)
Daily Average: 364.7 RMB (USD 51.21)

Volume 2, Days 91-92

I couldn’t go to the Black Forest without actually seeing the Black Forest, so with a bit of research, I found that there were plenty of hiking trails in the area, some connecting to other cities (even as far as Switzerland), but with the most accessible and spectacular views on the Schauinsland Mountain.

So, after a very truncated coffee and study session, I set out for a day of hiking with a bottle of water, an apple, and a half pack of bulgur salad. It was exciting to wear my trekking pants for actual trekking. Fortunately for me, I was able to loiter at the public wifi hotspot for about ten minutes on the way to the tram station so I could fill my phone with podcasts. God help me if I had to walk through nature with nothing to listen to.

I rode the S-bahn to the end of its line, which also happens to be the bus stop for the one rural bus heading out in the direction of the mountain. Based on my research, it is all within Zone A, so it only cost the base fare, though that wasn’t put to the test. I alighted with all the other hikers at the base station of the cable car (bergbahn). Of course, I didn’t want to pay close to 10 euros to ride a cable car to the top of the mountain, but I didn’t know where else to start hiking. After a bit of looking around, I found a hidden path leading from the parking lot across a field and up the hills.

It took about 1:45 to reach the top by foot compared to the roughly 20 minute cable car journey. It was a nice walk, but not particularly scenic and often difficult to figure out exactly which way I was supposed to go. Though the mountain is covered with trails and paths the signs aren’t completely helpful. For a large section of the way up, I was seeing signs saying that this was the scooter track that people could race down. While the signs helpfully said there were better footpaths, they didn’t indicate where to find said alternate routes. Nonetheless, I reached the top without ever encountering the a scooter racing downhill, though the few times I had to cross the mountain highway, there was always traffic.

I had a short picnic when I reached the top and followed the path to the tip-top, where there is a tower one can climb for the ultimate views. Off in the distance to the south, I could see the snow capped Alps, but the haze was too much for my camera phone to shoot them clearly. One could also almost make out Basel in the distance and the invisible border between Germany and France lay somewhere between where I stood and another range of hills to the west.

In my ambitions, I figured I would hike all the way back to Freiburg, a distance of 10-12 km, since most of the path was still in the mountains and gently sloping back towards the river valley. The first 20 minutes of the walk where the best with alpine scenery of rolling grass meadows with small groups of lazy cows rocking their cowbells in between the copses of fir (?) trees which make the Black Forest “black.”

Unfortunately, I was so taken by my alternate urges to yodel or burst out with “The hills are alive…” that I missed the telltale white road signs for the foot paths and found myself outside a guesthouse looking at a sign telling me the way to Freiburg was in the direction I had just come. I retraced my steps to find where I missed my “turn” and kept along the path.

I seemed to have lost the way again and found myself on a dirt road used by logging trucks. It had been used after a rain, so the tire tracks cut deep into the now dried mud. The road lead downhill quickly, but I didn’t realize quickly enough that I had made another mistake. Fortunately, I was able to trace the thin outline of possible paths in Google Maps and found myself in touch with the yellow mountain biking road signs before long. Eventually, the white signs for the foot path showed up again out of the blue and I stared back up the path, wondering what faeries had hidden it from me when I needed it. For the most part, the proper footpaths were small and most scenic.

I eventually emerged into a town who road led to the valley, the rail line and the highway connecting back to civilization. As I reached a bus stop, the once an hour bus also arrived before I even had time to read the route information. A briefly contemplated just jumping on the bus as the driver looked at me questioningly, but I let him go on. I would have had to ride it to the end of its line and transfer to get back to Freiburg. It was only another 6km and the weather was fine.

Along the valley, I was able to mostly follow the bike path, apart from the railroad and traffic, so other than staying out of the way of the two-wheeled commuters it was a nice walk into the blinding, setting sun.

I came across an Aldi in the town right before Freiburg and popped into to buy some stuff for the wine party the Australians and I had brainstormed the previous night. I was feeling fancy (and hungry) and decided to go for some Sekt, aka German champagne.

Ten minutes later, I was walking along the river where many people were stretched out on the grassy banks or splashing in the shallow water. It looked refreshing, but I carried on back to the hostel, stopped in the kitchen to eat a bowl of cereal, then went up to shower and put on clean clothes. I bumped into L in the room, but she disappeared before I was out of the shower. I was ravenous and no one was around, once again, so I reheated a second portion of the shakshuka with three eggs and a hefty chunk of “fladenbrot” (not very flat flatbread). After finishing, A showed up in the kitchen asking for dinner recommendations. I suggested he go to the Aldi.

He was back in about 20 minutes with sandwich materials and a bottle of Riesling and after he finished his meal, I cracked open the sekt to begin the wine party. He went to shower immediately L returned and after a surprising amount of stage direction, people started to congregate around the table. I had called a German guy with a radler over to join and a few other Germans — some guests, some volunteers — and a girl from Spain also joined. It was a good little impromptu party, but when the subject of ages came up, it was a bit shocking to find out that with the exception of the one hostel staff member, everyone else was 19 or 21 years old. All the wine went as did the packages of mini chorizos and cheese cubes. Despite walking 40,000 steps with very little food during the day, I made up for the calories and then some at night. I also tried a package of something called Jaffa cakes (also sometimes “soft cakes”) where a bit of spongecake with fruit jelly is coated in chocolate. They reminded me a lot of “dominos,” a Christmas time treat.

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Tram	2.4
Aldi Snacks (2 wine, cheese, sausage, Jaffa cakes)	10.45
Total:	12.85 EUR (100.23 RMB) (USD 14.09)

Running Total: 33095.6 RMB (USD 4651.09)
Daily Average: 363.7 RMB (USD 51.11)

Freiburg (in Breisgau) is a small town in the southwest corner of Germany, and like pretty much every small town in Germany, is home to a university. More importantly, it sits amid the foothills of the Black Forest and has a well preserved, picturesque old town with a number of canals (basically gutters) with streams of cool water flowing amidst the sidewalks and streets. Those streams are a good way to cool your feet in the summer, but a life threatening danger if one is walking while texting. Freiburg might be my favorite spot in Germany so far…, but I am getting ahead of myself.

Volume 2, Days 89-90

My Flixbus from Stuttgart to Freiburg was not set to leave until 2pm, and though it was far out of the center of town, it was easily reachable through the S-bahn. More importantly, I had no rush to leave the hostel, where I tried to get as much work as possible done before noon, when I had to check out and throw my luggage in the basement for two hours while I made lunch and continued working. I was able to turn the remaining taco meat, single tortilla, lettuce, bell pepper, and tomato into a hearty taco salad, but since there was large surplus of left over baked goods from the breakfast, still slipped a brotchen into my bag for on the road.

Other than sitting around on my computer all morning/early afternoon, I made one trip to the supermarket to return my collection of bottles.

The bus ride was uneventful and I tried to continue cramming German, though I’m wondering what the point is with an imminent expiration date my by presence in the Deutsch-speaking land. It didn’t help that the bus ride was rather nauseating. Strange how every bus in Europe is such a white knuckle experience when I find no complaints with the buses in China.

After a stop in Karlsruhe (which I was skipping, but is apparently the model for Washington DC with a circular layout), we cut south into the Black Forest. We pulled into Freiburg a little after 5 pm, dropping off right in front of the so small train station there isn’t even a visible station. Though the hostel would have been a 15-20 minute walk under normal circumstance, I took the S-Bahn to save effort. The ticket machine on my side of the tracks was cash-disabled, but with a ticking clock of the soon to arrive tram, I was able to cross the tracks and buy my ticket from the other side. Of course, the trams were equipped with on-board ticketing machines so it was kind of pointless.

The hostel was on the other side of the town, just outside of old town, as hostels are wont to be. The hostel has a feel of an old farm house with high ceilings and a view of the vineyards on the steep hill behind it. I checked into the the big dorm, scoped out the kitchen facilities then went to find an Aldi. Since it was located in the old town, I was able to get a brief look around including the painted Schwabentor.

Having had a large lunch, I kept it simple with dinner, eating a light salad and taking a day off from the alcohol. I finished up my computer work and tried to study a bit before giving up and reading in the hammock. One unfortunate (or is it?) thing about the hostel is that they intentionally do not have Wi-Fi.

There were a lot of people around the hostel, mostly individuals who quietly kept to themselves and one large group of teenagers. I wasn’t completely antisocial my first day and struck up a conversation with a Taiwanese girl hunched over a German textbook. It would be nice to do a program where one is just a student for a couple weeks or couple months focused on language classes.

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Pfand return	-0.9
Ubahn	2.5
Flixbus	10.16
Tram	2.4
Hostel (4 nights w/ bedding)	80
Groceries	10.17
Total:	104.33 EUR (813.8 RMB) (USD 114.31)

Running Total: 32800.3 RMB (USD 4607.29)
Daily Average: 368.5 RMB (USD 51.77)

Volume 2, Days 86-88

My second attempt to traverse a distant from city to city via Blablacar was also a failure. I’m really not sure if it is something you are supposed to book in advance or go after last minute, but multiple reachouts to the driver(s) who posted their plans far in advance were completely stonewalled, and resulted in automatic defaults.

I spent the morning kicking around the hostel, splitting my time between studying German and optimizing/testing/debugging my vocabulary training system, which seems to be coming together quite nicely. Of course, with regards to German this means the biggest shortfall is the lack of clarity and consensus among the vocabulary lists, so I have some tedious days ahead of me coming through word lists to try to clean up the data.

Shortly after noon, I gave up on getting a cheap ride and took the bus over to the train station. I was a little surprised to find that Ulm did not offer a cheaper “short distance” fare, but paid the stupid bus fare for the 3-4 stops. In the station, I bought my ticket and noticing that the once an hour regional train was delayed a bit, looked rather longingly at the two bakeries and Burger King in the train station, but decided against grabbing any sort of lunch. To be fair, I had had a spot of breakfast, toasting up the remainder of the rye loaf from yesterday and smearing a bit of sour cherry jam rescued from the “food share” bin.

The train was both late and more crowded than I have ever seen a train. It didn’t help that there were so many bicycles and baby carriages occupying the lower level section to which I, with my large suitcase, was also relegated. After nearly a ten minute delay, we set out from the station and the conductor made a beeline for the two African men, whom I was secretly judging for being assholes and taking up seats that should have been given to mothers with young children.

It was about an hour to Stuttgart, and I emerged into the haunted house of a train station. Apparently, Stuttgart has a “big dig” of its own with some endless construction project to revitalize the area around the train station. As a result, except for the trains themselves, the inside of the train station has been mostly gutted. I went directly into the underground station and paid what also looked like an usurious price to take the public transport some four stops to my hostel, which a short but uphill climb from the above ground U-bahn station. (Hills! Stuttgart has hills. It is literally the first city I’ve visited in Germany on this trip to have hills.)

I checked in, which entailed climbing the stairs to the third floor (where ground floor was even up a half flight of stairs) to drop my stuff off in the small and body odor infused dorm room. I glanced around suspiciously to figure out who has not been keeping up with their laundry on these hot, sweaty days.

I sat in the bar lounge for a bit before heading out to find an Aldi. Though there were many closer supermarkets, I needed to track down an Aldi in order to top up my phone credit. It sucks so bad. I had almost 3 euros of credit left on the last day of the billing term, but the next four weeks need 3.99. It’s not possible to buy just 1 euro of credit, so in order to keep my phone internet connected for an extra 9-10 days, I am shelling out 5 euros. This was no light decision, I have spent the last 2 weeks thinking about it. I suppose on the bright side, I own this number, so the extra credit will theoretically still be there when (if) I return to Europe.

While in the Aldi, I decided to buy a bunch of groceries to cook up a storm in the kitchen. I was feeling Tex-Mex and bought ground beef, kidney beans, “wraps,” etc. It was a good, if longish, walk to and from the Aldi, taking me through the central pedestrian zones of Stuttgart, including the site of the ongoing annual wine festival. (Stuttgart also has vineyards in the area, so maybe on another trip it would be fun to go visiting those on a Weinwanderweg). Now, while it would have been good to try some wine at the festival, I saw the prices and nearly soiled myself. I could buy two bottles of wine in the supermarket for the price of a sample (0.1L short pour). The residents of Stuttgart don’t share my price sensitivity and every table was full of people swigging wine and chowing down on the Swabian fare.

I cooked, ate two burrito-sized soft tacos, and shoved the rest of the food into the fridge (I really lucked out that there were tupperware containers available). I stopped myself after finishing almost half the German wine bottle I had picked up and wandered the hostel somewhat bored. I had eaten out on the terrace/biergarten, but nothing was happening there. I settled in the bar lounge with my computer and a desire to do more German studying. Though there were only a handful of people in the lounge and all were immersed in their own electronics, the staff brought out bowls of peanuts. I resisted as long as I could, but the temptation was too great, and then the desired effect took hold and I ordered a beer from the bar. Fortunately for me, they have a special discount on your first “welcome” drink.

A skinny fellow sat at my table with a store bought salad and fruit cup, and after a while I got to talking to him. He happened to be from Hong Kong and I tried to pick his brain about the protests. We commiserated. He had to leave and an Italian fellow I had seen prowling about with a bottle of beer essentially took his place. The Italian kid was interesting… he had spent his month long holiday on a motorcycle tour, cutting up through Eastern Europe in the Scandinavian countries (even reaching Finland’s northernmost point), but as he had to be back in work on Monday had traversed 600-800 km a day the past 2/3 days. Despite the utter exhaustion of the return fugue, he was keen to go out and party.

A Swiss couple invited us out to a “pub” and we assented. In my reading up on Stuttgart, I had spotted a few interesting places to possibly get a glass of beer. There was a bit of an adventure that night. One museum was turned into a pool party of some sorts. We looked but didn’t stop there. Instead we traversed the main stretch of town to go to the Palace of the Republic, a former public toilet turned into a bar. It was popular, with hundreds of patrons spilled out into the plaza all around it. The beer wasn’t anything special and after sitting a bit too long on the ground we made maneuvers. I was thinking about finding a late night kiosk for a cheap beer, but the Swiss couple were keen on checking out the wine festival.

Of course, seeing the prices with their own two (four?) eyes sent shivers down the spines of those even used to the insane prices in Switzerland. The aim shifted to getting some food for the Italian, who ordered a Flammkuchen which took ten minutes to come out. After some discussion, it seemed the best plan would be to return to the hostel, where the Swiss couple redeemed their welcome drink coupons for cocktails and I drank from my bottle of white in the fridge. The Italian, rested up now, carried forth on his resolve to go clubbing at some techno party and disappeared into the night. He in turn was replaced by a British cyclist, who also happened to be a militant vegan. After the conversation going on a bit too long for my taste, I went upstairs and crashed.

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Bus	2.3
Train	14.3
U-bahn	2.5
Hostel (3 nights)	48.99 (cc)
Aldi	17.11
Beer(s)	4.5
Total:	89.7 EUR (699.7 RMB) (USD 97.55)

Running Total: 31784.9 RMB (USD 4431.80)
Daily Average: 369.6 RMB (51.53)

Volume 2, Days 84-85

It isn’t very often (outside of China) where you have a pair of distinct cities which constitute the new and old versions of the same city, but Ulm and its neighbor on the other side of the Danube, Neu-Ulm, make up a strange pair. Though one could walk from one Hauptbahnhof to the other in about twenty minutes, they are indeed different cities and even belong to different Federal States.

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I spent the last morning in Augsburg drinking coffee and studying. I had absolutely zero time pressure with a 12 o’clock checkout and 12:50 Flixbus scheduled, so at some point in the morning I went out to return a couple of plastic bottles, take a look at the city’s metro map (so I could figure out how to go to the Flixbus stop), and pop into one shop I had seen which was selling specialty coffees. I was able to buy a small bag of some Viennese style coffee that turned out to be quite tasty.

I was feeling restless, so I checked out of the room before 11 am, but sat downstairs and had one more coffee (apparently there was a coupon for a 1 euro coffee in the keycard holder for the room). It’s funny how every few days, my German studying seems to take on new urgency. I had started reading through an online textbook just for the extra exposure to vocabulary and a few brief texts, but decided that morning to plow through a chunk of exercises–manually typing up German sentences and then checking them for accuracy.

Eventually it was time to go, and I hobbled with my ever heavier suitcase up the street to catch an S-Bahn out in the Northern P&R station where the Flixbus would swing by. It’s really hit and miss with the Flixbus whether you get dropped off centrally or out in the hinterlands, but I appreciated the clear cut nature of having to take public transportation out there when I would have hemmed and hawed about trying to walk to the train station.

I had a long sit in the sun waiting for the bus and started to worry about the remaining less than two weeks of this European trip. I did some research, not caring about my ample data reserves with only a day or two left in the billing period and came up with a basic outline for how to get me to the airport at the crack of dawn on my departure day. I continued the research and made some decisions from the comfort of the Flixbus

Ulm was only one stop and a bit more than an hour away, but once again we were dropped off in basically the middle of nowhere. I checked Google Maps and at least found some functioning navigation. The S-bahn station was undergoing repairs with a substitute bus running its route. I bought my ticket from the machine at the S-Bahn, but hopped on the bus across the busy street. Downtown, around one of the stops where I would be best served to change buses, I noticed a woman get on the bus from the front and shake hands with the driver. After chatting with him a moment, she called out for everyone’s tickets. So that’s how it goes. I thought it was odd how so many people had gotten off at that stop. It looks like she caught two people, but more importantly, I hadn’t purchased the wrong ticket or anything embarrassing like that.

At the next stop, I got off to transfer because I needed to cross the river into Neu-Ulm where my independent hostel was located. I let myself into the converted apartment building via a door code and followed the instructions left for me on a slip of paper. I made myself a coffee, then decided to go explore a bit of the town.

Ulm is famous for a number of things. The first is that it is the birthplace of one Albert Einstein, so I made sure to track down the commemorative fountain with his likeness. Unfortunately, his birth house–at least according to Google Maps–is in the middle of a construction site. The second is the Muenster, a church which purports to have the tallest steeple in the world. That seems to contradict what I read about Cologne Cathedral, though there may be a technicality in that the Ulm Muenster wasn’t completed until the middle of the 19th century. In any case, I shelled out the 5 euros to make the dizzying climb to the top. Thirdly, Ulm is famous for its unique buildings (most-crooked, narrowest, etc) in the Fischerviertal (Fisherman’s Quarter). I never actually found anything that fit those descriptions, but it is a charming couple of blocks to walk around.

After seeing most of what there was to see in Ulm, I returned to the hostel and paid my room fees. I had a rather stilted conversation with the manageress in German before excusing myself to run to a grocery store so I could take advantage of the kitchen.

There was a conversation going on at the kitchen counter when I returned, but as I was chopping vegetables the clock struck midnight and they all turned into pumpkins. Everyone suddenly had to leave, and I was basically alone in the common room for the rest of the evening. While I was eating my curry and rice, there was a knock at the back door and a neighbor girl politely asked for something. I couldn’t find anyone in charge of the hostel to help, so I apologized profusely.

I read a bit before heading up into the room where my large, surly looking roommate was on his laptop (to the best of my reckoning he had been in the room using his computer for a solid six hours when there were tables and desks available downstairs). I finished the last two episodes of Babylon Berlin to find a satisfying conclusion to the story and went to bed.

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Coffee beans (250g)	5.29
“Discount” Coffee	1
Streetcar	3
Flixbus	5.05
Bus (w/ transfer)	2.3
Muenster Turm	5
Hostel (2 nights)	41
Curry ingredients	8.62
Total:	71.26 EUR (555.8 RMB) (USD 77.82)

Running Total: 30931.2 RMB (USD 4330.99)
Daily Average: 368.2 RMB (USD 51.56)

Volume 2, Days 82-83

To move on the next city Augsburg, which isn’t very far from Munich, presented something of a challenge. I suppose it is too close to Munich for there to be any Flixbuses offering a route (even as a leg of a longer stretch) and a cursory check of train prices some days back left one panting for breath.

As I enjoyed a fairly leisurely morning with an entire dorm room to myself, it was time to get serious about Blablacar, a carpooling platform. I registered for an account and found someone driving that way from around 1 pm. That left me with too little time for a stroll in the English Gardens, but plenty of time to catch up on work.

The hostel had a fairly early checkout time of 10am, which put a cramp in my style when I suddenly remembered I had a collection of empty bottles I needed to run to the recycling point. That left me just enough time to drink a cup of coffee and head downstairs, where I put my suitcase in storage and plopped down on a couch to keep working.

Unfortunately, my request for a ride automatically timed out after about an hour, so the Blablacar fell through. I knew I couldn’t check in at the next hostel until 3 pm, so I wasn’t in any particular rush to get out of the hostel, other than one trip to a supermarket to grab a salad and a new flavor of Rittersport bar (brownie…not very good).

Well, I was stuck with the train after all, and I suddenly realized how dire my suitcase situation is. A lot of plastic from the undercarriage was been worn away over the past couple weeks when I decided to stop worrying about “fixing” the wheels and just letting it go on the raw plastic wheel cores. Well, I’m down to about two weeks and this suitcase isn’t going to do much rolling about. Because of that, I shelled out the money (probably unnecessarily) to catch a bus to the train station, where I paid an exorbitant rate for the local commuter train. Seriously, this kind of train would cost no more than 600 yen in Japan, but 15 effing Euros in Germany. It seems each train I take gets more expensive than the last, even though the distances I cover are shorter and shorter. The worst part was no one checked my ticket. That’s 30 euros so far that I could have saved by not buying a ticket, compared with a what 50 euro fine… The expected value of train hopping might be positive.

Grumbling over the insane amount of transportation costs incurred so far, I hauled my luggage the 1.something kilometers from the train station to the hostel. It was not a fun walk and it was unpleasantly warm in the afternoon sun. I checked into a modern looking cafe that serves as the office of this building which is a combination hostel, hotel, and apartment. Weird.

The rooms were spacious with full sized lockers and those weird double size bunkbeds (double on bottom, single on top). Good for me that I was assigned a bottom bunk, but sucks to be stuck with a top bunk. There was one guy in the room taking a nap and this being Augsburg, I wasn’t expecting much of a crowd.

I walked a block over to the main square to find a supermarket and get a bottle of water. Unfortunately, the Rewe didn’t stock their “Ja!” brand cheap mineral water, so it was still cheaper to buy (sugar free) lemonade than another brand of mineral water. I grabbed a pastry from a bakery and headed back to the hostel where I ordered an espresso and sat around for about an hour.

I puttered around most of the day until this scary looking Eastern European guy came into the room. He was angry with me for taking “his” bed (even though it was assigned to me) and muttered in Russian or Albanian or something. I figured it was time to head out and find a “real” supermarket, and walked some distance to comparison shop a Norma, Edeka, and Aldi. I am quite the connoisseur of German supermarkets.

Regarding the hostel, the one thing I had been looking forward to was an impressive kitchen. However, it seems they decided to get rid of the kitchen in order to have more bedrooms. In place of a full kitchen, there was a “kitchenette” with two mini-fridges, a tea kettle, and a microwave. That was certainly a real disappointment. Taking this in mind, I bought a microwave meal and returned to eat it in the room, where a table and chairs were helpfully provided.

I chatted with the Indian guy who had been napping when I first arrived. He was in town for a job interview, and spent a good chunk of the evening studying (as best I could tell) copying sentences from Google translate by hand.

I enjoyed a quiet evening, watching two episodes of Babylon Berlin and reading a few pages of “Rabbit, Run,” which I picked up from the library in Frankfurt but have barely looked at.

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Pfand return – apple pastry	-1.14
pre-mixed salad and choc.	4.08
Bus	1.5
Train	15.3
Hostel (2 nights)	38
Lemonade	0.64
Mohnschenke	1.6
Espresso	1.6
Aldi	3.96
Total:	65.54 EUR (511.2 RMB) (USD 71.37)

Running Total: 30201 RMB (USD 4216.66)
Daily Average: 368.3 RMB (USD 51.42)

Volume 2, Days 80-81

The Russians did not create the chaos I had anticipated. In fact, they did their best to whisper and fumble around in the dark when they returned around midnight. In the morning, I went to the small, smelly kitchen on the second floor to make coffee. I was going to sit there to read the news, but the internet did not seem to work. In fact, though I had no problem on my laptop the day before, I had yet to be able to get my phone to connect to the wifi.

I went to the lobby and found a similar situation. I was able to use my laptop, but my phone was consistently rejected by the router. Strange and unfortunate. I worked productively until about 10am and paid witness to the stream of checkouts. Its funny how often I am hanging out by the front desk during the peak checkin/checkout times, as if I am seeking out my own personal Fawlty Towers sketch.

I didn’t have a lot of plans for Munich as I had been there before, and more importantly, do remember visiting. Though, to be honest, I only remember one big museum and Dachau on the outskirts. Being of age now, my priorities were oriented around my stomach and my liver and a bit of research told me that the best, i.e. only, time to get those famous boiled white sausages was before noon. The LP had recommended one place, so I walked the 15 minutes towards the city center.

Along the way, I popped into the insanely elaborate Asamkirche and followed the pedestrian stretch up to the Marienplatz, where sits the Rathaus and a handful of churches. I spotted one place advertising 1 euro per sausage (before noon) and it did seem that every other establishment was a brauhaus of one kind or the other. Taking a closer look at the Rathaus, I spotted a sign with the timings of the glockenspiel show and killed the spare 20 minutes before 11am by taking a loop around to the cathedral. It was just another cathedral. The same could be said for the mechanical whirring of the central clock. It really strains the eyes to be looking into the sky with the sun right there.

After the show I went to track down the recommended brauhaus, but decided it was too expensive for my tastes. There were a couple of more casual eateries in the area around the Viktualienmarkt advertising 2 wurst and a pretzel for 6 euro something, but that was still a little too steep for me. So, I backtracked to find the one place that seemed too good to be true. It wasn’t. I asked for three wurst, but only got two and the small hefeweizen was just the right size for a Bavarian breakfast.

It was a snack and I followed it up by going immediately for another snack at an old bakery making things I had never heard of before. It was a little pricey, but I sat in the garden for close to an hour sipping on my coffee and eating the fried dough that is a schmalznudel.

For my non-gastronomic tourist activity of the day, I figured I should check out the Residenz, since that appeared to be the top number 1 thing to do. Of course, I passed by the Hofbrauhaus on the way and checked out the menu. Since I had all afternoon to kill and a belly full of food, caffeine, and alcohol, I decided to go all in on the Residenz and by the combination ticket including the palace, the treasury, and the Cuvilliestheater. The treasury and the palace included audioguides without headphones, meaning one’s arm got quite a workout holding it up to one’s ear. That also means that the pensioners just crank the volume all the way up and dangle it around their neck.

The treasury was nice and small, just ten rooms, though there was more than 5 hours of audio available describing the provenance of almost every single piece.

The palace was enormous, despite everything saying only portions of it are available to tour on a given morning or afternoon. There were so many chapels and halls and series of rooms and secondary exhibits of bronze sculptures, porcelains, silver, miniatures, etc. that is was quite overwhelming. Of course, a lot of it was destroyed by fires over the years, rebuilt, bombed, rebuilt, so there was an interesting mix of styles and authenticities, but that is to be expected from any of the palaces I’ve seen in Germany (this trip). My number one takeaway from the palace were the beautiful wood inlay floors in one series of rooms.

I had made record time through the palace with a scant 2 hour visit, and poked my head into the theater. The idea that one even has to buy a ticket to look in a insanely baroque theater is insulting. Who cares if it is only 3 euros, it takes 30 seconds to have a look and by that point one really can’t see straight anymore.

I took a small loop around the north side of the palace to pass through its gardens (which lead on to the 50 million mile long English gardens) to kill time and think about dinner. I was debating going to the Hofbrauhaus. Despite the expense, it would seem worth it for the experience. On the way back, I went in, found plenty of available tables, but it didn’t feel right. I didn’t want to be there alone on Saturday night, so I took a chance to head back to the hostel to see what was up.

Nothing was up. Thirsty, I popped over to the supermarket to grab a couple beers, cheese, salamis for a little snack, and spent a while in the common room to get a feel for the vibe, but the hostel was pretty dead. Making lemons out of lemonade, I hung out in my empty dorm room snacking on the vittles obtained from a second (let’s throw the diet out the window) visit to the supermarket.

An interesting anecdote about my two supermarket runs. The first time, I only had 4 cents and the cashier, who was anxious to go on break, just took the four cents and waved me away rather than pull out 94 cents of change. The second time, I went to the same lane he was (still) working and handed him 3.60. He didn’t even think twice but kept the extra cent. So, one could argue, I went out of my way to (partially) pay him back.

The Russian, who had been out, came back around 9pm and promptly went to sleep. I found that odd, and went to bed early myself.

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Weisswurst (inkl. tip)	8.7
Schmalnudel & Coffee (w/ tip)	6
Residenz combi ticket	13
Snacks	7.06
More snacks	3.59
Total:	38.35 EUR (299.1 RMB) (USD 41.78)

Running Total: 29292.8 RMB (USD 4091.52)
Daily Average: 366.2 RMB (USD 51.14)

Volume 2, Days 78-79

While eating my breakfast in the morning, I bumped into T, the Seattle-based fellow who was also on the walking tour the day before. Since we were both planning on visiting the Nazi-era parade grounds, I suggested we walk out there together. It was a fair distance outside the city but not an unreasonably long walk.

There is supposed to be a circuit around the lake that allows you to look at the congress center, the zeppelin field, etc., except for some reason a lot of the nice wooded paths were closed because landscapers were cutting down/removing trees. We wasted close to half an hour trying out different paths, all of which had dead ends. Despite all this, the sheer scope of the grounds was overwhelming. For example, the annual Nuremberg Volksfestival, which was setting up for a 2 week run starting the day I leave, only occupied a small chunk of the central avenue.

We went to the documentation center, which for some reason is what the Germans call every museum related to the Nazis and found that there was a really good offer on the municipal museums. Single entry was 6 euros, but for an additional 3 euros one could get a day pass covering eight different museums, one of which I had been planning on visiting anyways. Sold!

Of course, after the long walk to the rally grounds, walking around them, and the long winded explanations of the included audioguide, I was feeling progressively antsy and increasingly inclined to fast forward or skip sections as we moved through the museum. Other than the room introductions, the audioguide merely provided a translation of the exhibit by exhibit texts, so it was both a good exercise to practice reading German (while being fed the answers) and a way to know when to cut off the audioguide and move on to the exhibit.

It was after noon by the time we were finished with the documentation center and since we were now on the clock to get our money’s worth, we went to the S-bahn stop in front of the museum. However, Nuremberg charges exorbitant rates on the public transportation–over 3 euros for a single ticket or 8 euros for a day ticket! There were two other museums (the site of the Nuremberg trials and a museum of industry culture) on the outskirts which would have made sense to spring for the transport pass, but after a moments deliberation, we decided to skip them and do a handful in the center of town (after a lunch).

We walked a brisk pace and were back within the city walls in record time. I made a beeline for a snack shack that I had seen advertising 6 euro schnitzel with french fries which I had been dreaming about. It was a good deal with a huge mountain of fries.

After that little pit stop, we visited the City Museum in Fembo House. It wasn’t particularly exciting, but provided an overview of the history of the city in pure German, though there were two exhibits with headphones playing lengthy audio plays in English–one concerning the resolving of minor details for the end of the 30 years war (though the treaty was signed in Westphalia the details were hammered out in Nuremberg) and subsequent party, the other concerning a Neptune fountain that the city sold to St. Petersberg.

The next museum–Spielzeug Museum–was far more exciting with extensive exhibits on both the traditional tin toys manufactured in Nuremburg as well as a decade by decade history of trends in toys in the 20th century. It was quite the nostalgia trip. There was also a collection of video games on the ground floor available to play, including the original Super Mario Bros. Two German kids were trying and failing to even get past the first goomba on the first level. I crushed them.

We hung out there until the museum closed at five, then headed over to the Albrecht Durer house (open until 8pm!), which I had originally figured I would check out. At 6 pm there would be a tour by an actress pretending to be Durer’s wife, but since that incurred an additional fee, we decided to just got through it on our own–with the included audioguide. It was surprisingly detailed and informative with some cool multimedia terminals and an entire room of copies of Durer paintings.

After finishing the fourth museum, we celebrated a cost effective and educational day with a beer at the pub in the city gate next to the Durer house. It is a popular spot for locals where people grab a drink and sit on the square. The beer was okay but nothing special.

We decided to get a second drink and went over to another pub I had done some research on. It was a little better and significantly quieter so we could get a table on the street. T had majored in German and with the influence of alcohol we were playing around with a mix of languages. The table next to ours was hard not to eavesdrop on with an obviously bad date between a boorish American man and a local.

After the huge lunch, I wasn’t up for a big dinner, so we swung by the supermarket where I put together a salad and we found some chilled beers in the fridge case. T wanted something more substantial than a salad and we ended up splitting a freezer pack of chicken cordon bleu. It does seem a waste not to use the nice kitchen to actually cook something.

The Australian guy I met in Frankfurt was cooking in the kitchen and we all hung out a bit, but the evening wrapped up fairly quickly. I still had an entire dorm room to myself.

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Tageskarte	9
Water	0.44
Schnitzel mit Pommes	6
Dunkel Bier	3.4
Gold Bier	3.2
Groceries	5.27
Total:	27.31 EUR (213 RMB) (USD 29.81)

Running Total: 28289.3 RMB (USD 3958.80)
Daily Average: 362.7 RMB (USD 50.75)

Days 76-77

Honestly speaking, day 76 (i.e. Tuesday) was something of a complete wash. I hung out in the hostel until after noon, working on my stuff on my computer and taking the opportunity to cook another bag of rice with the shredded carrots I had bought to fancy up my salads.

When I was buying over priced my train ticket to Nuremburg, an Indian fellow tried to sell me his leftover monthly rail pass for a few euro less than the cost of a ticket. There was something fishy about the way he constantly moved the ticket around and the mere fact that he was trying to get a few euro back from a ticket that he had ostensibly invested 100 euros in. I ignored him and followed the rules. The train conductor checked my ticket almost immediately, but I noticed that as we stopped several times on the way to Nuremburg, she never made any subsequent rounds to check anyone else who boarded.

It was raining in Nuremburg when I arrived, but I plowed through the drizzle to reach the hostel, which was just inside the city walls on the south side (the train station is just outside the old city wall on the southeast corner of town). I spent a few more hours working on my computer in the lobby of the relatively upscale (looking) hotel which also serves as a hostel. The facilities were certainly nicer than the typical backpackers, but there was still a decent shared kitchen and dining area.

The rain never let up so I didn’t even bother taking a walk around town, but I did pop over to an Aldi to get some yogurt and fruit in an attempt to take a few days of diet correction.

In the evening, I lounged in bed and watched a movie on my computer, before drifting asleep.

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Train	12.3
Hostel (3 nights)	71.09
Fruit	5.65
Total:	89.04 EUR (694.5 RMB) (USD 98.03)

Running Total: 28053.1 RMB (USD 3959.70)
Daily Average: 369.1 RMB (USD 52.10)