I’m so jealous! Nisheet is backpacking through Europe while I’m stuck in Illinois going to work. I missed him so much though, that I jumped on a plane and spent a week with him in Germany and Austria (primarily Munich and Salzburg). Usually when I fly to Europe, I catch an early afternoon flight and arrive at my destination fairly early in the day. However, in order to maximize time, I caught a late flight after a full day at work and then arrived in Frankfurt in the afternoon. I thought it was much easier adjusting to the time zone this way because I arrived tired and was able to head to bed shortly after!

Munich, Germany:

We spent the first night in Frankfurt, but the next day we caught a train to Munich. I know a lot of people that have traveled the super-fast Eurorail, but we found it much cheaper to take the regional trains. These trains were plenty fast for us, were in decent condition, and were almost always on time. That being said, it still took a good chunk of the day to make our way across Germany.

We stayed in a hostel in Munich for 5 nights which was quite the experience for me! We stayed in a room with 10 other people (mostly guys in their 20s), and I shared a bathroom with around 15 other girls. The bathroom was nasty! It looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in weeks, and the shower pressure was so low that it took a good 10 minutes to wash my hair. I have long thick hair, but still! They did have a decent breakfast though. Every morning we had breads, cheeses, meats, yogurt, eggs, cereal, hot chocolate, and orange juice.

To orient ourselves with Munich, we took a free city walking tour. Most cities offer this, and you should definitively check for it when you are in a new city. The guides are excellent because they work solely for tips. We saw a fair amount of the city including the glockenspiel in action and Frauenkirche where you can see the devil’s footprint.

After lots of sightseeing and walking around Munich, we decided we needed a drink, so we went to the famous Hofbrauhaus. The food was meh, but the atmosphere was great. Be prepared to make friends here and grab a seat wherever you can. We sat at a long table with several others and enjoyed a night of swapping stories and drinking beer. Well, to be honest, Nisheet drank move of the beer. Despite what others might think, they also serve other alcoholic beverages. The wine was pretty good!

One of the most memorable days we had in Germany was when we visited Neuschwanstein (Mad King Ludwig’s castle that was never finished). We thought we were being smart and took an early regional train even though it had a transfer. As luck would have it, the train broke down and we were stuck in a tiny train station in the middle of nowhere for quite some time! Luckily there was a little shop in the station that sold tasty little pastries. We eventually made it to the castle, and it was definitely worth it! It was beyond beautiful. The leaves were changing colors, and fog was swirling mystically around the castle. It was absolutely magical. After touring the castle, we decided to hike over to Mary’s bridge and then down to the stream. We took a wrong turn and got a little lost during the hike and had to communicate with Germans that didn’t speak English, but we survived and can now look back and laugh at it. I must admit that I was a little nervous since it was getting dark while we were wandering around!

Salzburg, Austria:

After having our fill of Munich, we hopped on another train and went to Salzburg, Austria. This is one of my all time favorite places, and we had a wonderful time here. The first day we walked all over the city and took in all the sights. There are streets filled with little stores and restaurants. Salzburg is famous for its Christmas ornaments, so most of the stores are packed with hand painted glass bells, wooden angels, and Christmas trees. If you don’t find what you want in one store, there are 50 more down the street to look through. Salzburg is also known for Mozart, and a souvenir gimmick is chocolate Mozart balls. These are very tasty, but don’t buy these in the tourist shops. I found them in the regular grocery store at a much cheaper price! Also, something to note is the shops and restaurants close very early in the evening (at least while we were there they did). Plan accordingly, or you will be buying your dinner at the grocery store like we did.

After walking around and buying cheese, bread, and wine in the store for dinner, we headed back to our romantic little hotel and watched the Sound of Music. Yes, that’s right, we watched the Sound of Music in Salzburg. Not cheesy enough for you? The following day we took the Sound of Music tour. It was an amazing tour of the city and surrounding area, and as a bonus we got to sing the songs from the movie!

All good things must come to an end though, so after our short visit in Salzburg we got back on the train, and Nisheet took me back to Frankfurt for my flight back to Chicago.