“I had to leave Germany for legal reasons” was my favorite December conversation starter. Little-known fact: A German-American tax treaty allows US Citizens who pay tax in the United States to be in Germany for up to 182 days without also owing taxes to the German government. The same part of me that believes you’re wasting time if they’re not calling your name on the PA when you walk up to a gate at the airport has allowed me to cut this deadline very close.
So, when I found out that my employer wanted me to stay in Germany a few extra weeks to cover some meetings through the end of the year, I had “no choice” but to go and travel outside of Germany for most of the week, returning to Germany for one day of meetings per week. Such was the genesis of a particularly travel-heavy month in Europe!
But first, even though I said goodbye to Stuttgart already, I need to show off a spiffy picture I took from my living room on one of my last few nights there:
Marienplatz and the Stuttgart Fernsehturm. By some stroke of luck, the beacon got „stuck“ this evening, letting me take a long exposure that highlighting the [conveniently stationary] beam from the beacon.
Ok! Distraction complete! Back to the traveling story: 2 weeks, 5 countries, 9 international border crossings, 10 trains, and 3 flights later, I think I’ve finally seen enough – for this month. Read on for details:
Vienna
Being the train-lover that I am, I took the train to Vienna (via Munich) for a total of 8 traveling hours instead of paying 10 Euros more to fly. There’s a certain je ne sais crois about traveling by train… but it could have a lot to do with the amazingly beautiful winter European scenery, the relaxing ride, the allure of the café car, or the people you meet along the way. Come to think of it, it’s probably all of the above.
Vienna was, as predicted by everybody, beautiful – and a lot of fun. I stayed as a great hostel: the Hotel Ruthensteiner. It was new, clean, had a comfy, attractive common area/bar and was big enough that you meet a ton of cool people, but not so big that you’ll never run into them again. If you clicked on the link to the place, allow me to re-assure you that the hostel is way swankier than their web site. ;)
So, what happened in Vienna? In a word, Australians. Lots of ‘em. If you’ll allow me an extra few words: “and a Brazilian.” It turns out that it’s statistically impossible to go traveling and not meet at least one Australian who’s on a six month trip of personal discovery. It seems that I’m not the only one who’s noticed this. The good news is that they’re almost without fail the nicest, most fun folks with whom to chat, have a beer, or go out all night and party.
A tale of two Aussies. And a Brazlian. And a tree branch.
I was there. I swear!
Artificial snow blowing over one of many Vienna Christmas Markets
Hats off to the Vienna hostel crowd. We saw sights. We drank. We saw Christmas markets. We drank. We went on a Christmas Market crawl. And, of course, we drank. Cool folks!
Budapest
Crossing the border from Austria to Hungary highlighted – by contrast – just how much German I was understanding. Hungarian? Not so much.
Budapest’s a beautiful city, though. I didn’t really click with the hostel crowd there – too young and too backpacker-y. The hostel staff lived in the dorm rooms with the guests, and everyone seemed kind of terminally high. The sights of Budapest more than made up for it all:
Your intrepid blogger, sneakily included in the picture thanks to the reflective properties of one 5-star hotel.
The palace, up on the hill. (yeah, that’s right. I couldn’t think of much to say.)
A famous bridge, whose name I have absolutely and irrevocably lost.
Prague
Prague was my favorite destination of all my December travels, almost certainly because I went with Norma – and these things are always better when you share!
We stayed at the Czech Inn -- one of those high-end, swanky boutique hostels that are popping up all over Europe. The place was clean, inexpensive, had super-minimal modern décor, and a lively restaurant/bar attached.
Some highlights:
Of course, it was super-Christmas-y!
As Europe’s new go-to party destination, fancy, colorful bars and restaurants abound.
…so colorful that I was awash in red!
Pretty buildings everywhere! The blue tones in the sky were pretty overwhelming that day!
That’s the look of a man who just had the best vanilla beer ever. Sounds gross. Actually amazing. Don’t know how they did it!
We spent our last day in Prague on a more somber topic. We took the bus to Theriesenstadt, a city with a long military history – but most notably it was used as a staging point in the holocaust. As if that wasn’t enough, it also had a Gestapo prison and holding facility. I took a bunch of pictures that day, but I’ll leave you with one that’s a little more pleasant: Norma reading the guidebook as we approach the museum.
