Spring Break 2010 Pt. 2 (Munich, Prague, Berlin)

So after a long two weeks of traveling around France, Spain, and Portugal, while at the same time trying to outrun a hovering volcanic ash cloud over the skies of Europe, we all arrived home in Galway for a few days of rest and recuperation. However, after just three days, what did we do? Why, we hopped on yet another Ryanair flight and began another journey, this time only lasting one week. We arrived in Munich, Germany and discovered that we were staying in a hostel that might as well have been a hotel. Sure we stayed in a room with three sets of bunk beds, and it wasn't the most glamorous place, but it did have a huge lobby, an atrium room with a glass ceiling and numerous comfy chairs and hammocks to lay on. It also had its own bar/cafe. Fortunately, as nice as it was, the Wombats hostel was only used for sleeping and breakfast. During our days in Munich, we saw the massive English Gardens, apparently much larger than Central Park, and ate all kinds of traditional German food. We had sausage and pretzels, dabbled in some real German sauer kraut, and spent one evening in the Hofbrauhaus, the most famous beer hall in Munich, and maybe in all of Germany. There each of us in the group of five had a stein, one of those giant glasses of beer. One of the German favorites is called Radler, a mixture of beer and lemonade which is so good.

We took a walking tour of the city and learned a lot about the history of Munich. While walking around, we came to realize that Munich is spotlessly clean and it seems a little too nice in some parts. Everything is just very clean and neat all over the place. We went inside the church that Pope Benedict used to reside at and saw many different types of buildings and architecture. On the last night we were there, hours before we took a brutal overnight bus to Prague, we headed down to the Oktoberfest grounds and luckily for us, Springfest was in full swing. Springfest is like Oktoberfest Jr. and when we arrived at the famous beer hall tent, people were jumping up on tables and dancing the night away to a cover band that played some great 90's American music.

The most amazing two days of the trip, as different as they were, were our day trips to Dachau concentration camp and Neuschwanstein Castle in the German Alps.

First up was an afternoon at Dachau. When we arrived and walked up to the entrance of the camp, I got the feeling that it was going to be an intense and emotional afternoon. We took a guided tour of the grounds where they showed us the main processing building where there were displays and posters telling the history of the camp. Within that building also were the showers prisoners would use when they arrived, along with examples of some of the punishment devices that were used on them by Nazi soldiers. We moved on to see replicas of the barracks that prisoners slept in and then finally made our way to a secluded part of the camp where the gas chambers and crematoriums were located. Walking through that building and through the gas chamber room knowing what had taken place there 60 years ago was very overwhelming. The things that happened there will never truly be grasped by all of us, but being there shed just a little light on those dark days in our world's history only half a century ago.

The second day trip was a much more pleasant one and its a day that I will not soon forget thanks to the scenery that surrounded me. After a two hour train ride through the beautiful German countryside, we arrived at the foot of the German Alps in the small town of Fussen. From there we took a bus to the foot of another mountain, on which stood Neuschwanstein Castle, creation of King Ludwig II and the inspiration for the Sleeping Beauty Castle in Disneyland. With our tour guide, we hiked up the mountain and took another guided tour inside the castle. We couldn't take pictures inside the castle but letme tell you, the decorations were just incredible. The throne room, which has never actually contained a throne since Ludwig only spent about 170 days there in total, contained a tile mosaic floor with over one million tiles. The walls were painted gold and adorned with magnificent wall paintings. The best sites of all though were outside the castle windows. All around us were the breathtaking German Alps, rising high into the clouds, capped with blankets of snow. It was very surreal to be standing there overlooking the Alps. Just never imagined that I would be there in that situation, but I was, and I'm not complaining.

From Munich we traveled to another charming and elegant city, Prague, in the Czech Republic. Like Munich, Prague was very clean and almost seemed a little artificial. With Prague Castle on top of the hill overlooking the city, it all seemed like something out of Epcot Center in Disney World. We stayed in another nice hostel and saw all of the most famous sites in Prague on another walking tour. Since we began our travels, the Sandeman's New Europe Tour Company has been our best friend. We've taken so many of their tours and they've all been great ways to see the cities we have visited. We saw the famous astrological clock, a concert hall where Mozart played live, walked across the famous Charles Bridge, and ambled around the grounds of Prague Castle, the largest and oldest medieval castle in the world! Prague was a very charming city and one of my favorites that I have seen this semester. As for the Czech language, it's totally crazy.

The last stop on the European travel marathon 2010 edition was the capital of Germany, Berlin. As a history major, and as a lover of World War II history, Berlin was the place for me. They city is chock full of WWII history and 20th century history involving the USSR and the Berlin Wall. Once again we stayed in a great hostel and took one more Sandeman's free walking tours. We saw the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, the former location of Hitler's bunker, the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, the Pergamon Ancient History Museum, the Olympiastadion soccer stadium that played host to the 1936 Olympics (where Jesse Owens beat Hitler) and the 2006 World Cup Final (where Zidene made his infamous headbutt). But most important of all, was the Hotel Adlon, the most expensive hotel in Berlin and place where Michael Jackson hung his baby off of the top floor balcony. Sadly, I think I saw the most cameras come out when we passed that hotel.

On Monday we got a flight back from Berlin and arrived back in Galway safe and sound, just before that pesky ash cloud arrived back over Irish airspace, causing more travel trouble for some of my friends here. Shockingly, tomorrow marks just two more weeks until this incredible semester comes to an end. I'll have to write an end of the semester reflection sometime before I leave but it is starting to hit me and all my friends that we do not have much more time left here. It has flown by in a flash, but as they always say, time flies when you're having fun. This semester has been the best experience of my life and I'm gonna enjoy these last two weeks as best I can before I get back home for another summer in the town of friendly people, Pearl River.

I'm going to upload all the pictures from all my European travels to my other picture site so I'll let you all know when that happens. If you have access to my facebook page, they are all up on there already. I'll also post some on here later on.

Thanks for reading everyone and I'll be seeing you soon!

Conor