travels across europe

europe - day 2: landshut, germany

broken_shadows — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 07:23:00 GMT

22-9-10

Slept well, feeling peckish we walked into a bakery and found pretzels. OMG. they are my new favourite food. preztel mit butter. too good to be true, they are even better than i had hoped for. the butter is very creamy here and more white than yellow, and the pretzels really are salty so they really do make you thirsty! today was an exploration day. we walked through the main square - the roads are cobblestones throughout the city square, normal roads everywhere else. fruit and veggie stalls dotted all over the square, - bananas were nice - in between al fresco cafes and expensive boutiques and a hell of a lot of optical stores and apoteke!!! another thing, there seems to be a big italian influence here, lots of cafes, restaurants, gelateria.

we went inside the great big church – st martins - thats smack bang in the middle of the town square! its unbelieveable! the ceiling is just so high and the architechture is something to see! its fascinating to think they built this thing by hand. now im not into churches (or so i thought) but this was just the most gorgeous place i had ever been in. the pipe organ was massive too, would have been nice to have heard it playing - they were having a concert there later in the week that we would miss :(

found a penny market, like a cheaper aldi! the things in there were quite interesting, love that you can buy beer and wine in the supermakrket - and so cheap too. grabbed an emmenthal and salut baguette from the cafe inside the supermarket – which was rather nice actually! - then continued wandering around the city. we decided to do a reconnaisance of the city and see how long it would take us to walk to the train station. turns out, about 20 mins or so, not that far! we found a pay phone when we got to the station so made a quick call to mum and dad, just to let them know we were alive and well :) i think we talked for about 5 or so minutes, it cost over €8!!!! but was worth it. we found gelato and sat in the park very close to our hostel, in the sun!

the chestnut trees (castagna) are dropping their fruit - and trying to kill you! they are just about everywhere you look, they are quite lovely and supply a lot of shade as their leaves are so wide. the leaves are changing and falling and the trees create long tunnels through the park, its quite a sight to see, especially as the river runs by. we could have fallen asleep here it was so relaxing, but we decided to go grab a coffee to perk us up and do some more exploring. alfresco dining in the afternoon sun is one of lifes little pleasure i think. the coffee was very weak but the cake, oh the cake! chocolate torte of some description, had very thin layers of really soft, fluffy sponge sandwiched between fluffy whipped chocolate butter cream. did i mention that the butter here seems to be so much creamier? imagine the creamy buttercream yum! all topped with a chocolate ganache. oh wow. soaked in the sun some more then it was time for a beer. yes you heard me right. beer o'clock. now those who know me know that i am not really a beer drinking kinda gal. on the contrary. but here in bavaria, they know how to make a beer, and there is something about sitting in a beergarden in the afternoon sun with castagna trying to kill you that makes the beer taste all the more sweeter :D i really love the beer, i was even drinking 1/2 ltr steins and keeping up with tom. it just goes down so well! we walked into the drei helmen biergarten and were greeted with "ahh the australians!!!". we met klaus' father who only spoke a little english, but seemed very interested to know where we had come from and where we were going. the family here is just so lovely.

today we walked the whole city, from gate to gate. the city gates and some of the walls are still here, its the ginormous castle grounds!!! after the beer we walked up to the trausnitz castle on the hill at twilight, which was really amazing and a little surreal. i felt like i was a weary traveller knocking at the city gates late at night looking for food and shelter for me and my horse! very surreal. then the fire brigade turned up, about a dozen firemen got out, they just stood around for a chat as far as i could tell, nothing exciting.

we walked back to the main street for some italian food – we had a margherita pizza, and a caprese salad which were both amazing, and i had a glass of prosecco, though i thought prosecco was a sweet wine, it was rather dry. we had a fun time conversing with the waiter, bouncing from german and english to italian!!!!

there was a full moon shining right behind the castle, which i tell you, i could have stared at all night, simply stunning. it all got too much so we headed off for bed where we both slept like logs.

day one - europe here we come!!

broken_shadows — Fri, 8 Oct 2010 09:52:00 GMT

22-09-2010

We headed off for the airport and i was still not feeling it. very surreal. wasnt until mum and dad said goodbye and drove off (with mum waving like a muppet!!!) that it hit me i wouldnt see mum for 2 years! i couldnt stop the tears! but tom got me through,we walked straight up to the check in desk, no lines!!! we were quite a bit early. wandered around a bit, was quite exhausted, so we had a bite to eat, then went to sit at the boarding gate for 2.5 hours - though we actually ended up sitting there a lot longer - plane was supposed to depart 2110 hours, but it was late arriving into sydney, so we didnt actually start boarding the plane until 2305hrs! i think we left around 2330, and we seemed to make up the time, we were only 15 minutes late flying into dubai, so that was good.

the flight wasnt as bad as expected. the airbus a380 = awesomeness! plenty of legroom for tom, attentive flight attendants, the food was great - i enjoyed dhal and roti for breakfast - interesting!, and the entertiainment awesome! not much sleep was had, a little dozing here and there, i reckon about an hour sleep out of the 14hr flight was had. the guy sitting next to us on the flight, michael, and aussie was heading to his new home in: London! what a coincidence. the flight was smooth, except for a great bit of turbulence over india, omg, at one point the plane felt like it was going to drop out of the sky, there were screams all over the cabin, and the cabin crew rushed to their seats. a bit hairy, but we got through it. sitting on an aeroplane toilet during turbulence is a novelty i dont wish to try again! i didnt need sleeping tablets, i wasnt stressed out, buti didnt sleep, just dozed and watched tv shows the whole way!

we landed in dubai at 0600 hrs, local time, the temperature was 31degrees C. as we came into land we saw the massive big tall building thingo! it had lights flashing up and down it, it was pretty cool to see! such a different country! we had to board our connecting flight at 0800hrs, so there wasnt a lot of time to do anything, except stroll down to the boarding gate. the airport is pretty cool, massive tunnel like structure, even had a garden. shoppers paradise. we went through the boarding gate, and we kept walking down, down, down, we came to the door, oh cool we get to go on the tarmac. um, no we board these MASSIVE buses, that actually ferry you 10minutes across the other side of the airport to the actual plane! how cool!!!!

jumped on to the 777 plane, was a bit smaller than the airbus, but still comfy. we didnt have a seat buddy this time, was good, we could stretch out a bit. we got fed again, i felt like we hadnt stopped eating all day! watched another movie, some tv, but mostly kept looking out the window. as we were departing dubai, we were excited to see the hotel that was built out in the water, and the massive palmtree islands! omg how exciting! we took pics, but they didnt turn out very well. it was quite hazy, i guess from all the sand flying around. was cool to watch the sand spin lilttle whirly whirls on the tarmac. was exciting flying over the middle east, actually flying over kuwait, i looked down to see a heap of billowing black smoke, and spot fires. really weird to see out in the desert. it really is a dry arid land, there is nothing for miles, then these HUGE cities. then we were flying over the sea, then europe! flying over romania was gorgeous, through budapest, then OMG ITS THE AUSTRIAN ALPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! unbelieveable! truly the photos dont do it justice, its amazing. what an experiencce. we stared at them for AGES! then we changed direction and oh, were in germany! very excited about the little villages, all white houses with red roofs! flying over munich we saw the oktoberfest WOW! big from the sky, going to be massive on the ground. the flight path was roughly - dubai - kuwait - baghdad - syria - ankara - istanbul - bucharest - budapest - salzberg - munich.

we arrive in munchen and catch a bus to landshut. got to station and sat down and oh, we are in a bar! so tom ordered two beers and omg, it may be just that we were desperate but the beer was frikken fantastic!!!!!!!! we walked around asking for directions in terrible deutsch and finally a lovely lady, kerryn, overheard and took us to the information desk and helped ask the questions, then walked us outside and showed us where we were on the map then we started walking off and she came running after us (literally), remembering she had her car with her and she gave us a lift to the hostel. we made our way up the road and discovered the hostel doesnt have reception until 1700hrs, it was only 1500hrs. I needed a toilet, so we walked back down to the main road and we found a beer garden (biergarten) and discovered the drei helmen biergarten. this place is awesome. we walked in and the bar lady asked something in deutsch and we asked if she spoke english, we found her husband klaus spoke fluent english, and he took it upon himself to come over and help us with the menu - zwei beir bitte. he explained all the food and the beir and we had some lovely food - i had a deep fried cheese thingy and tom had some pork belly or something - wammerl, the pommes fritte were super awesome!!!! omg they must have special tasty potatoes here, they were fantastic! klaus' family owns and runs the biergarten, he is also a pilot for air berlin, and told us if we need to fly we should ring him and he will get us his family discount!!!! too nice. the father in law is a taxi driver - they have their own taxi service, i first thought klaus said he was a taxi driver and i thought that was quite a life - pilot and taxi driver! LOL!

so klaus took us in as family, he put our laptop on his personal wifi network - so we dont have to pay for internet in landshut! how cool is that? then we were offered a slice of cake - his mother had a major birthday 2 days ago (im guessing 70th - but only a guess!!) so she offered us some cake and coffee - omg, germans know how to make cake i tell ya! chocolate mousse/buttercream, sandwiched between hazlenut sponge layers with strawberry puree and white chocolate! best cake ive had in a long time! lovely sitting outside in a beer garden til the sun goes down - about 730pm this time of year. his mother speaks no english, but she had a fantastic conversation with us, describing the building of the church tower - took 100 years to build. and its about 800 years old! there are tunnels underneath the town i think water, the church was built on stilts to hold it up out of the marshy ground. everything in the village is very old, its funny to see the city walls, and gates still standing, all brick. its a little surreal.

Back to the hostel to check in and shower and change, then we went back to drei helmen for more Helles - the beer. They were closing, though we ordered some more beer and stayed for staff drinks! Patrick, the chef, is Slovakian, but speaks wonderful english, so he was a great translator. A local, Manfred, took it upon himself to make us welcome, and join his table for drinks and we spoke about religion and politics, he is very well travelled, and has lived in the USA for 20 years, and also has been to Australia. It was 2330 by the time we got back to our hostel and hit the hay hard - we needed sleep!!!

Photos: day 1

broken_shadows — Thu, 7 Oct 2010 13:50:00 GMT

plane trip oz, dubai, munich

Nearly There!!!

broken_shadows — Fri, 3 Sep 2010 10:24:00 GMT

17 sleeps to go! i'm really rather excited to be off on this journey! i've been dreaming of this day for years and it's finally nearly here! everything is organised, i just have to sort a few things out, like what to put in storage, etc. our farewell party is tomorrow, i'm really looking forward to that, get to see everyone and say good bye, one last hoorah as it were. one more week left at work - now that's the reality check! i will miss everyone, but i am so keen to get on the road and start a new journey.

more to come as i start my travels....