Nein Deutsch!

If you're wondering why I decided to make that the title it is because 'Nein Deutsch' (no German) is precisely the amount (okay well apart from saying 'thank you') of German that I managed to learn during my time in Germany. Clearly I do not have an ear for languages.

So all of a sudden it is mid September and I am sitting here in Rhodes, Greece, wondering how it could possibly be three weeks since I left Germany after spending almost two sensational weeks there. Germany is yet another country I would love to revisit, preferably with a car, some friends and absolutely no time restrictions - something I will be able to do in just six short years when I actually become eligible to hire a car in Europe (what a joke). I say this because Germany actually is quite large for a European country, being composed of sixteen different states, meaning there are many different cities and areas to explore. I only saw three (more than most Euro-travellers) but really wish I could have visited more. Something I have realised thus far on my travels is how large the world actually is (yeah, duh, I know) and how I really have only seen a smidgen of what this earth beholds. This is both inspiring and kind of saddening because I know I can not possibly see it all. Just the other day I learnt of three countries that I never in my life have remotely even heard of; these were Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan by the way if you feel like doing some googling tonight.

Anyway, most of us I am sure are remotely familiar with the wonderful Deutschland I am sure and therefore I probably do not need to inform you that the Germans speak German and other such details. If this were to be a post about Kyrgyzstan then I probably would bother with such details, for my own benefit as well rest assured, but I think that with Germany I can dive straight into how glorious a time I had there. I began my adventure in the Bavarian city of Munich, though I only spent two days there (due to the high cost of everything) before moving on to Hamburg, where I spent four days. Though Munich and Hamburg both were wonderful in their own rights I did not do anything overtly riveting in either city apart from wander around and explore. Sure I sampled a few beers, found a cool second hand English bookshop, also found a shop dedicated entirely to muesli, saw a family of street performers doing a bloody ripper job of a number of songs in a language of which I am too dim to know what it was, but none of those things are really worthy of elaboration. Instead, I will reserve the bulk of this blog post for the marvellous Berlin, one of my absolute favourite cities that I have visited thus far (it is up there with Edinburgh, London and Stockholm!).  

Luckily I had some friends to explore Berlin with: Alexis, Wendy and Sharee (who I had met just the day before in Hamburg). We did a lot in Berlin, a city with a history so gritty and rich but with an irresistible contemporary persona that so deeply juxtaposes the type of history that we all associate with Germany and hence the capital city Berlin. As in all cities as large and important as Berlin I was eager to take a free walking tour, choosing to go with (http://www.newberlintours.com/daily-tours/free-tour.html). The tour ran for two and a half hours, but within that time we were shown: Pariser Platz, The Brandenburg Gate, The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, The Site of Hitler’s Former Bunker, Luftwaffe HQ, The Berlin Wall, The Former SS Headquarters, Checkpoint Charlie, Gendarmenmarkt and also the hotel where Michael Jackson dangled baby Prince from the window. Though these tours are long and very information dense (I've forgotten most of the stuff I was told) they are still very worth dedicating a morning to simply to know that you have planted your feet somewhere where somebody's decisions changed the entire world. 

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.

Brandenburg Gate.

The French Cathedral in Gendarmenmarkt.

Berlin Cathedral.

One of Berlin's 'ghost stations' closed when The Wall stood as it connected both sides. The station was used by a select fortunate few to escape from East to West. 

I also visited two places that were not covered on the tour that I cannot recommend enough, the first being The Eastside Gallery (http://www.eastsidegallery-berlin.de), a 1.3km stretch of the wall that remains extant and is an international symbol of freedom. A lot of the artwork along the wall is visually impressive on its own, and is even more poignant with some prior understanding of why the wall was erected, how it divided literally Germany (and all of Europe to a figurative extent) and some of the absolutely brutal and tragic crimes that were committed there. I also would suggest setting some time aside to visit The Topography of Terror (http://www.topographie.de/en/) to absolutely anyone who plans to spend a few days in Berlin, built upon the ex headquarters of the SS and the Gestapo. The information displayed in this (free!) museum is detailed, clear, fluid and extensive, leaving no stone unturned in regards to that horrifying moment in time; a must visit for all - regardless of a personal interest in history.

Some of my own favourite parts of the wall. 

Though the city no doubt has some particularly somber aspects, there is also plenty to the place that makes it a thriving and cosmopolitan hub that very much has cemented it's place as a modern and international city of the world. Many Germans say that Berlin is not typically German as it is far too international. In my opinion this is not a bad thing because Berlin on its own is so thrilling, so busy and bustling and full of art and culture and life; all of which make it irresistible. I do not think I have ever met anybody who has been to Berlin and not enjoyed their time there. I spend quite a few days wandering around East Berlin, exploring several of the city's boroughs, admiring the myriad of cafés, pubs, bars and kitschy little independent stores that line street after street - this entire part of the city is like London's Soho. On one day in particular I happened upon a little underground theatre called Laden Kino and adored the place so much that I decided to watch three movies there over the course of two days ('The Young and Prodigious T.S Spivet', 'Finding Vivian Maeir' and 'Boyhood', all of which I thoroughly enjoyed should anybody be interested). On my final night in Berlin as well I found myself spontaneously going to the theatre as well with a new friend to watch a play, something that Berliners seem to do all the time because it is affordable, enjoyable and accessible. Overall I really was charmed by Berlin. It is a city of which I could never get bored and hope to be able to visit time and time again (hopefully with a bit more suitcase room and shopping money next time). 

My favourite part of Berlin was these little guys. 

Travelling isn't all Pub Crawls and Exotic European Lovers:

In fact, if you're me, Europe involves exactly none of that. A more accurate representation of my travels is being exhibited by me right now: I am sitting in my room in Berlin at 1:45am wearing my 'Prague Pub Crawl' shirt (which I did not actually attend of course, I just managed to score a shirt to create the illusion that I am interested in such a pastime) and eating peach jam from the jar with a knife because of course I did not eat dinner (unless you count the vegan brownie at 5pm which tasted suspiciously of egg) because what is a balanced eating pattern? Anyhow, I don't want to accidentally arouse anybody so I will now cease talking about my irrefutable sex appeal. 

You'll have to excuse me, apparently my verbal diarroea also shows symptoms when I type, and yes I am aware that there is a backspace button but I feel as if I deleted my trademark (it is not actually a trademark, but humour me) comedy there would be no point in having a blog that is nearly (not at all) as successful as the Huffinton Post right?

Aside from my word vomit, what I would like to bring to light is what can sometimes be a disheartening reality of long term travelling. Basically, sometimes you're just going to be having a shit time. More often than not what you are or should be doing in fact is very far from shit, for example you have possibly just arrived in Budapest - a bloody awesome city - and yet you find yourself spending your first afternoon sulking in your hostel room like Debbie Downer's sister who didn't make it to SNL due to her emotional insecurity, Sooky Susie. In fairness, some situations can legitimately make even the best of us want to pack up and go home, like when you rock up in Munich alone at 4:30am after a sleepless nightbus and you realise that oh bother, you're lost, and oh bother again, you don't actually speak German. However, just when the stress begins to set in and you think you might just sit there until somebody calls the authorities in concern of your mental state and they might send you home at the expense of the government, a nice Czech stranger decides to help you out and hey presto, you reach your accommodation at 6am; just in time to seize the day! Carpe Diem! ... Or sleep until 11:30. Either of those options are completely okay. You soon have to learn to stop getting frustrated at yourself for 'wasting a day' because you're so exhausted from a constant onslaught of everything and nobody tells you before you go away that sometimes you will feel despondent for no apparent reason. When you're on a bus to a foreign country that you have never, ever explored you know you should feel absolutely elated but instead you just wish you had your two puppy dogs and a gym membership to work away the kilos that you've convinced yourself that you have gained despite walking well over 10 kilometres most days. Now this is not a 'I'm homesick!' post, and no, a few certain naysayers certainly cannot proclaim that they 'told me so'; this is simply a reality check for any potential traveller out there. Do not beat yourself up if your entire day in Prague consists of three coffees and a journal entry. A few days later you will wake up at 6am and actually manage to cross Charles Bridge and photograph the fairy tale city when it isn't tarnished by the presence of retiree tourists turned amateur photographers and their oversized cameras and hungover Euro-railers between pub crawls. Admittedly you will then grab a Starbucks and mosey on back to your hostel room, watch a film and then take a nap but hey, at least the film was an Oscar winner... So you learnt something right?

Though I am trying to be as honest as I can and not just pretend that every single day has been full of boat parties and #amazing #europe2014 #wanderlust I do honestly believe that travelling the world is rewarding in ways that cannot be communicated through my crappy photographs or sporadic attempts at being a travel blogger. Although I personally have not found that the fact that I am abroad is on my mind every second (sometimes I do wake up and think I am in Perth) of every day, occasionally a feeling crosses over you, a mixture I guess of euphoria, pride and determination to stretch this opportunity as far as it can possibly go. Usually whenever I do something that the people around me consider to be an achievement I manage to find a way to shoot these accolades down, a way to create or accentuate a flaw in the situation. I believe this just comes down to my wiring; I have enormous aspirations for my life and henceforth I never was able to consider any kind of school or work achievements up until this point worthy of much praise or celebration. However, if I take a moment to really ponder the past four months (and I can officially say four months without rounding up as of today!) I think that I should feel proud of everything that I did to get myself this far. I do not just mean everything that I did on the homefront: the hard work, the saving, sacrificing 'being 18' (though honestly this was not always an enormous loss - I tend to enjoy sitting at home with Seinfeld re-runs and a glass of Moscato) and the deciding against parts of my better judgement to just go to uni, but I mean actually navigating my way through thirteen different countries and managing to do so entirely unscathed. Thus far (touch wood) I have not been mugged, lost anything major (well one camera cord but eh life goes on), broken any part of my body, been roofied, been thrown into jail, lost my luggage or any other nightmarish travel scenario that one can come up with; plus I have only missed one bus so that isn't such a bad run. Now of course I know that I am not the only solo traveller, or female solo traveller or anything unique and special to the backpacking community, but I guess I have achieved something that I really did talk about for years. So has every single one of us on a global expedition, no matter how far, wide or long we decide to travel. I actually remember the very first time I decided I was officially going to travel the world: I was in year 10 and I told mum in the car on the way home from Cockburn Gateway (that's actually a thing, if you're not a Perth person just ignore to avoid disgust and confusion) that I did not want any money towards a car, for I was getting on a plane to explore the world! I promptly went home that day, mum's approval in tow (she probably said yes at the time because she thought it was just another passing statement) and changed my laptop background to an aeroplane taking off into the sunset and began to google Contiki tours. Cut to the end of 2012, good old Jess graduates high school with a pretty good ATAR, gets her first uni preference and doesn't even bat an eyelid, for she is on every job search engine under the sun, scouring the web for a cleaning job in the mines where she can earn "like $80,000 a year and be on the road by New Year"... Yeah... Well we all know that I did not score my planned job in the mines and five months later (March 2013) I began working at Peter Alexander, a job that I had always dreamed of but that unfortunately did not come with the mining pay packet. Regardless, by October that year my savings were going strong and I strolled down to Student Flights Rockingham, sat before my lovely friend Brogan and proclaimed "I don't know where I am going and I don't know when, I just know that I am booking something today!". Flash forward another few months, it is May 1st and I am at Perth International Airport (having moved my trip forward two months whoops), going into the unknown. Although I still feel like this actually was not all that scary, I am sure one day I will look back in bewilderment as to how nineteen year old me stepped onto that plane and subsequently navigated the world on my lonesome. Now please do not think that this was a brag disguised as a tangent, I am simply trying to reiterate and emphasise what I have said time and time again: I am nothing spectacular at all. I am not famous (one day) and I am not heinously rich (again, one day), however I am out here discovering the world. Uni can be deferred (nobody will die), money can be saved (if I can save, anybody can) and travel can be affordable (I still eat enough for two people on a daily basis and I have been drinking wine frequently). If I managed to make this dream of mine (cue Lizzie McQuire movie moment) come true then everybody can. Lame ass cliche over. 

Now seeing as I call myself a travel blogger and not an online life coach I will stop trying to be inspiring and will actually cover where I have been (briefly) since Poland. Currently I am in Berlin (I think this city will get a post of it's own once I can get all of the pictures), a city that I am in love with. Berlin is by far the coolest city I have been to so far. I was thinking about this last night, certain cities and places I would come back to in a heartbeat and others I am glad I have visited but I do not need to see again, at least not for awhile. Germany is somewhere I know that I will be itching to visit again. So far I have seen Munich, Hamburg and Berlin, yet there is so much more of this fascinating country that I wish to one day see. If I end up based in the UK I think that Berlin will be one of the first places I will return to provided EasyJet has a cheap deal. Berlin is like the poor gal's London. But more on that later. 

More photos of Germany to come when I invest in a camera cord, again. 

So after leaving Krakow (I still had Robin at this point) we headed to Bratislava, Slovakia, infamous for being featured in the film 'Eurotrip'. After a few days there we ventured into 'Whoop Whoop', otherwise known as Nitra, in country Slovakia. Now the time we spent in Nitra was certainly eventful, though for a full summation of stories you will have to ask me personally, or alternatively purchase my book, due to be published let's say circa 2025. After Slovakia we were off to Hungary, visiting Budapest, the capital. Though our hostel may as well have been located in Warsaw it was so far away (we did not realise that we were arriving at the same time as one of Europe's largest music festivals... Whoops. Here's another travel tip kids: Google what is going on in a country prior to your arrival.) it did not tarnish Budapest for me. We were only there for about four days but aside from my first sulking afternoon I had a great time. We caught up with some boys from the UK for drinks one night, riding a Ferris wheel in the heart of the city with them at 2am but somehow not managing to find one pub or nightclub to continue our drinking after we left their hostel. Another night I caught up with another Aussie girl who I had met in Kaunas, Lithuania for dinner and then some drinks at a 'Ruins' pub. I highly recommend visiting one of these pubs whilst in Budapest. They are enormous ex-communist era factory buildings, fitted out with an eclectic collection of ruins (cars, lampshades, children's bicycles... You get the drift.) amongst which sit several bars of varying themes. I also recommend eating at one of Budapest's hummus themed restaurants. Simply because I am obsessed with hummus and the food was great. Budapest was stunning, we took a walking tour of the city with Free Budapest Walking Tours and our guide, Norbit (a name that does not represent how sexy he was) was excellent. Again, I would love to visit Budapest another time! It was cheap, vibrant and aesthetically very, very pleasing. 

Modry Kostolik, Slovakia's 'Blue Cathedral' and a pretty little Slovakian street.

Mátyás Templom, Budapest. 

St Stephan's Basilica, Budapest.

Onwards and upwards from Hungary we stopped by in Austria, spending three days in Vienna. I would have loved to see more of Austria but probably would go back in the winter time and explore the skiing region, or alternatively venture out to Salzburg. However, Austria was extremely expensive, especially compared to the Eastern European countries and their prices which I was generally very content with! Vienna is a stunning city, though probably is best visited if you are rich. I felt very, very shabbily dressed the entire time that I was in the city because everybody else there seemed to be wearing money; a luxury to which I am not privy. I am a backpacker, I wear what smells the least of sweat and doesn't have a kebab stain down the front of it. 

The Austrian parliament building, Vienna. 

Me eating a street falafel, the most affordable meal in town. 

Alas, after three expensive days in Vienna, Robin and I escaped to the Czech Republic, with her spending the first two days in Brno with extended family before meeting me up in Prague. Sadly, Prague was our final destination as a travelling duo after somehow spending three weeks going from randoms in a hostel to really great friends. So aside from a sad farewell at the end of our few days in Prague (probably sadder for her because I got vegemite out of the situation... Joking!), I really enjoyed Prague. I would not suggest however visiting during the summer months due to the influx of tourists mentioned earlier. All European cities are busy in the summer to an extent, though Prague without a doubt was the craziest I have seen so far. Prague is also where I purchased a new camera and therefore the quality of my photographs changes substantially at this point. Well I at least hope that they do. So with that, I will cease rattling on and allow the photographs to do the talking. 

New camera yay!

I had a grand old time at The Absintherie, sampling a Absinthe strawberry daiquiri, Absinthe icecream and an Absinthe slushy. No I did not see any fairies. 

On our last day in Prague we hired a swan paddle boat and paddled down the Vltava River.

Evidently I cannot take a nice photo to save my life, but this is the best we got as we parted ways. 

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