Dorahy The Explorer-he & The Swiss Affair: Schnee! So much Schnee!

I do apologise about taking so long to update; I've been frolicking through Germany and parts of Austria, as well as swamped under the ever growing university workload. Suffice to say, much to update on. So the other day, I was doing group work with another Australian and we ended up stopping because well, some weird atmospheric conditions arose:

Apparently this stuff is called snow. It makes Australians run around taking photos and throwing it at people.

It was so pretty and it made me want to take photos like this.

So two days after these photos were taken, this strange white stuff was at 40 cm deep and had successfully rendered all my dress shoes as a death hazard. So it was time to bring out my new commando boots and walk around like an army general.

Possibly the most bizarre thing about this white stuff was it made all of Switzerland go from "lush green" to "angelic white." That same weekend, I decided to venture to the town of Interlaken in Switzerland, with my favourite Colombian, Juan.

I have quite a few photos of Juan as he forgot to bring his camera. And when I say "forgot", I mean "it was in his coat pocket which he only found on the train ride home".

Interlaken is stereotypical Switzerland with its high alps, blue lakes and quaint town setting. Sadly due to the bad atmospheric conditions, we couldn't venture to the top of the mountains :( Another day maybe...

Having a pie in Lauterbrunnen

Ok, these are more snow-covered photos of Saint Gallen

Now we're in Interlaken!

We headed up to Lauterbrunnen from Interlaken

Lauterbrunnen was eerily quiet, with the exception of its waterfall, which would make the occassional crashing sound as snow fell from it

Up to Munnen for "better views"

Juan insisted I get a photo in the blizzard.

Why yes, it was cold.

Back to Interlaken

I love Switzerland. It reminds me of a giant Lego set

Lauterbrunnen

Munnen

We really wanted to have fondue here, but sadly we were too late :(

A few days later, I left my snow covered Swiss town to go and explore Germany. Whilst I almost missed my flight to Cologne (yeah, napping on trains to the airport at 5 am is a bad idea), I managed to enjoy two great days in Cologne:

Having done a good 95% of my travelling my train to this point, being on a plane was back to being a novelty. We're in the sky! Everything looks so small! Look! A safety demonstration!

Koln Dom. A truly huge Cathedral

You know what's really cool? Standing beside this bell on the hour. My ears are still ringing.

Sadly what these photos don't show is Museum Ludwig, which is right beside the Dom. It houses one of the most amazing modern art collections including Lichtenstein and Warhol. I discovered that "housing pieces of world famous modern art without actually making a scene about it" is quite German.

Chicken with pumpkin risotto. I think :S

CHOCOLATE MUSEUM SPONSORED BY LINDT

Kangaroo!

Chocolate is good for you. The doctor said so.

I got to make my own custom made Lindt bar here. *drool* (In case you're curious: hazelnut praline, strawberries and vanilla bean in milk chocolate)

After my trip to Cologne, I headed up Berlin to meet up with Ji Nin. After boarding the train, a woman asked could I help her with her bag. I helped her, then offered to help another woman with her bag. Ten seconds after that, a woman came up to me and asked did I want her spare, unused Starbucks coffee. Yes, I would like your highly efficient karma coffee thank you very much.

So next stop was Berlin!

So these photos weren't taken by me but Ji Nin and contain me. Here we are about to leave the Berlin Opera after seeing Turandot. Unlike the production I saw back in Sydney, there was a hanging, multiple acts of patricide and an oppressive regime.

I am completely perplexed how anyone is meant to fit into that church

Me at the Holocaust Memorial

Outside the Berlin Opera

Now my photos! First night at fancy Austrian restaurant - bean salad and rabbit confit

Deer with spatzli

I don't remember, but it was delicious

The Berlin Wall

The Berlin TV Tower, or as Ji Nin and I now refer to it as, "the most overrated tower in all of Europe"

Berliner Dom

Views from Berliner Dom

Museum Island

Brandenburg Gate

German Parliament House

The Holocaust Memorial to the Jews. This place is really moving, if for no other reason than children like to play here, and you'll see them one second, and then they will disappear

Ji Nin. About two minutes later, some guy tried to pickpocket her. He's lucky his spinal cord isn't severed.

The Holocaust Memorial to Homosexuals

Ji Nin and I saw Skyfall here. We figured it was only right to see a Bond film in Berlin, given its Soviet history.

Salmon with caviare and avocado

Gnocchi

Like apple strudel with sultanas

View from the Most Overrated Tower in Europe

View from Deutscher Telecom, thanks to Ji Nin's friend

Checkpoint Charlie. Now with a Starbucks...

...and McDonalds. I bought some McDonald's and walked into East Berlin as a symbol of Western Capitalism crushing Soviet Communism. Also, I was hungry.

The amount of banks, high end fashion and chain stores on this street is ironic

Ji Nin and I after our three nights in Berlin split up again to go our separate ways. I headed to Hamburg, to go look at some more modern art and see a proper city hall.

Hamburg Rathaus

It's not a visit in a European city unless a church is visited

Hey there Martin.

So a story about the Rathaus and St Michel. I walked to the Rathaus first, found out it was closed, walked to St Michel, then thought maybe the Rathaus would be open, and walked back. Was told the English tour would start at 11, so I walked back to St Michel, and managed to just make the Rathaus tour.

Interior of St Michel

Interior of the Rathaus

Australia representing in the Rathaus

The difference between Wollongong's City Council and Hamburg's? Wollongong doesn't have leather walls.

The Hamburg Kunst Hall - "My god that looks like Warhol's Soup Cans. Wait, it IS Warhol's Soup Cans! And there's Marilyn Monroe!"

I excepted a 7 Series BMW to come flying out of the sky here. Pat yourself on the back if you get the reference.

Views from St Michel. I had to ride a lift with a group of young German schoolchildren. The novelty of their ability to speak German quickly wore off.

Meanwhile, back in the underfurnished Hamburg Rathaus

After my break in Hamburg, I was reunited with Ji Nin and her friend Sam in Munich so we could have three days of adventures throughout Bavaria and Austria. Ironically, despite being based in Munich, we actually spent little time there.

Day one took us to Austria, where we travelled through ~~and took a thousand photos~~ of beautiful Bavarian landscapes before arriving in Salzburg, birthplace and home of Mozart, to which they remind you every three seconds. I do believe the term 'name dropping' should be formally changed to 'Salzburging'.

This is another Ji Nin photo of me. It has been named "Sad Australian in Courtyard"

Bavaria!

I like how Bavaria contains a reflection of my iPhone headphones.

You may be sick now of photos of Bavaria. I, on the other hand, am not.

And finally, Austria! Salzburg!

Mirabellaschloss Gardens

Unicorn!

On the left, the Baroque Museum, on the right, The Mozart University

We knocked, but sadly Mozart was out for the day.

The only swan in Europe I like

Delicious chocolate store, selling only the most delicious of things

Mozart's birth house

At least they tried to stay traditional

Be prepared for photos of mountains...

Later that day:
"Ji Nin, stop hugging your laptop"
"But the mountains are so pretty!"

The reason why there are so many photos of mountains is because you can't really understand the sheer size of them unless you were there. I kept taking photos of them as I would turn around to take a different angle, then couldn't remember if I'd already taken that angle, so I'd take it again because no matter how long you looked at these mountains for, you were just in awe.

Once we'd finally pried Ji Nin off her laptop, we went to Schloss Neuschwanstein the next day to check out King Ludwig II of Bavaria's famous castle. That guy had serious taste, and a serious love for Wagner and building large, ornate castles

More photos of countryside Bavaria

Schloss Neuschwanstein

Another Bavarian castle just near Neuschwanstein; I forget its name, but I'm pretty certain it translates as "The Poor Cousin's Castle"

Beautiful lake views, with Austrian Alps in the background

Ji Nin learns there will be ducks in the lake. Ducks like to mock Ji Nin; they're the Swans of Ji Nin's world.

"Quack quack quack, did you see Ji Nin's shoes? What a joke. Quack quack!"

Hiking up to Neuschwanstein with the most irritating tour guide in the world. He asked me who I voted for in the US Elections. I told him before that point I was Australian. Twice. If anyone needs a guide for Neuschwanstein, I can advise you who definitely not to use. At several points, we were going to desert him if not that he had our tickets. I don't know what it was exactly that made him so bad; his mental breakdown when the restaurant was closed, telling us to hurry up, not knowing anything really past a Wikipedia article, his inability to speak German after living in Germany for TEN YEARS (Seriously. "Eine Tee schwarz mit Milch bitte" is not a hard sentence. Is my German brilliant? No. But I also know more German in three months than this man knows in ten years). He also liked to try and bum cigarettes off us and one point woke us up on the train ride home to ask us if crystal meth was known as crank.

As I said, King Ludwig II knew how to live. This castle has a fake grotto built into it. I kid you not. Sadly, photos are forbidden :(

Ji Nin insisted we take a horse drawn carriage back down to the base.

After two rather lovely days at such beautiful locations, our time in Munich took a sober turn as we spent our third day at Dachau Concentration Camp. While Dachau was never used for mass exterminations, it doesn't make you feel any better when you walk out of a room and realise you just walked through a gas chamber. I don't have a lot of photos of Dachau; I felt it would be in poor taste to take photos with the same frequency as I had been throughout the rest of my trip.

I think this might be the most jarring photo I've taken thus far throughout Europe

It's quite hard to explain how truly horrifying and depressing some of the things I saw, read and heard at Dachau were, and whilst a part of me really didn't want to go there, we had all said we felt like we should. I really do hope as a species we can put this part of our history and nature behind us.

On a much more uplifting note, below are some various photos of us exploring Munich, teasing Ji Nin and eating dinner in multiple beer halls. Sadly what isn't included is the German vegetarian complaining to us about eating young pork suckling and Ji Nin turning to him, looking him directly in the eye and saying "The pig is delicious." He left us shortly afterwards to talk to an Indian underwear salesman.