Joel's Solo Adventures

While Scott started his Job in St.Anton I decided to use the rest of my rail pass. After being with Scott for 3 months straight the first night felt being alone felt very different. I spent 2 more nights in Innsbruck before leaving. While there I checked out some of the sights, took a walk by the river and visited the Christmas market. 

We neglected to visit Belgium when we where in the Benelux area previously so I planned on visiting Bruges and Brussels to see what we had missed. As well, when we visited Munich all we saw was the train station, hostel and beer tents so we wanted to see what else that city had to offer as well.

Munich

From Innsbruck I took the 2-hour train ride to Munich. The hostel I booked was right next to the one we stayed at during Oktoberfest but turned out to be even better and considerably cheaper. After arriving and settling in I went for a walk around town and through the Englisher Garten, Europe’s largest metropolitan park. In the park there is a fast moving river that at one point makes a wave that people are able to surf on. Even though it was freezing cold with snow all around when I walked by the wave there was one crazy guy surfing.

After the walk, I took a seat in the hostel common room to warm up and it was there that I just so happened to run into some girls from Calgary (they saw the flag on my bag so they enquired about where I was from). They seemed pretty cool so I made some plans to meet them at the bar later. So I met them at the bar where we all took full advantage of the 3 hour happy hour. While at the bar we decided we wanted to go out and visit the famous Hofbrau Haus. I already walked by the beer hall earlier in the day so I led the way and with my Oktoberfest experience gave the girls an idea of what to expect at a beer hall. Hofbrau Haus actually has quite the history, Hitler pretty much started the Nazi party there (but we learned this 2 days later on the free walking tour). As I expected, the beer hall is very similar to the tent at Oktoberfest. A little smaller, less people (this was a Wednesday night in late November) but basically you sit at a table with 10 or 12 people, drink liter beers (Steins or a Mass) that are served by beer wenches in dirndls. That night we enjoyed a few steins and managed to meet some Aussies and Americans. 

After Hofbrau closed, the night was still young so we all went across the street to the Hard Rock Café. This was the first Hard Rock I had been to on the trip and probably the last, a little to American for a European trip.

The next day it was time to experience history first hand, so after a later start I took the S-Bahn to the Dachau concentration camp on the outskirts of Munich. Dachau was the first Nazi concentration opened in Germany and was used as a prototype and model for the other Nazi camps that followed. 

Visiting this camp was not a fun or exciting experience, especially by yourself but it was defiantly worth the visit.

That night I met the girls from Calgary for happy hour again. At the hostel bar we met some Aussies, Brits and a German girl. Some people wanted to go to the Hofbrau Haus and others wanted to go to a club. So we started off at the Hofbrau Haus and then went to a club the German girl new about. Once again it was a great night with some good people.

The next day I visited the BMW Museum and BMW Welt. This was one of the main reasons I came back to Munich. Recently completed, BMW Welt (BMW World) is an incredible structure where people pick up their cars for factory/European delivery. Here they have exhibits that display and explain BMW technology as well as some of the newest models. As it worked out I got to see the brand new 7 Series that had been unveiled 5 days earlier. From BMW Welt you can also take a free tour of the local 3 Series factory, but I was too late and missed the only English tour for the day. Instead I spent the rest of the afternoon at the BMW Museum. With interactive exhibits displayed in a great way it was one of the best Museums I have been to. 

That night the girls and I took it “easy” and just stayed at the hostel bar for the night.

The three girls from Calgary, an Aussie guy we met and myself decided do go on the free walking tour the next day. The walking tour was pretty good. We started off in the main square in front of the famous clock on city hall. 

The Christmas market had just opened so everything was looking very festive. On the tour we learned a decent amount. I had no idea that so much Nazi history occurred in Munich. After the tour and some food the 5 of us from our hostel started to walk back. On the way we needed to walk back through the main square. This time the Christmas market was extremely busy with people just standing around. It was at that point we realized everyone was waiting for the main Christmas tree to be light, so we waited 10 minutes and all the lights where turned on. It was pretty cool to see, considering we just happen to be there at the right time. 

That night, for the last time we started off with happy hour at the bar and then went to a club not too far away. It was packed with loads of young people and they played good music so we stayed out fairly late. At the end of the night it was actually kind of sad. On a trip like we are on no matter how good or bad the people you meet, you will always have to leave them behind.

The next mourning, after a minimal amount of sleep I caught the 9 am train to Bruges connecting through Frankfurt and Brussels.

Belgium

After a long and tiring train ride I arrived in a dark and rainy Bruges. I booked a bed in a 12 bed room (the biggest room I have stayed in on the trip). The hostel was not as nice as I hoped, especially after having such a great stay in Munich so it was quite the change of pace. The next morning it was cold and rainy but I did not let that stop me from seeing beautiful Bruges. I took a walk around town and saw all the major sights. 

As the afternoon went on I decided I had enough of Bruges so I took the hour train ride to Brussels. Brussels is a beautiful city as well. After getting out of the train station I was a little hungry so I figured it was time to have some french fries in the country they where invented and even ate them with mayonnaise. Next I walked through the Grote Markt (main square), which was amazing. Buildings on all sides had intricate carvings with some cool architecture, pictures do no justice to the place. Next I walked over to the famous Mannekin Pis, a small fountain of a boy continually peeing. 

Next it was on to St. Michaels Cathedral. After the cathedral I ventured back over to the main square where there was a sound and light show going on. Like most main squares I had been in this time of year it was fully decorated, but the show that was being put on was like nothing I had seen for free before. It really put the lights in Waterloo Park to shame. 

Finally to finish the evening right I had an amazing waffle topped with chocolate, strawberries and whip cream. Then it was back on the train to Bruges. That night I hung out at the bar a little and made sure to have 4 different kinds of great Belgium beer.

The next day I leisurely left the hostel and hopped on the next train to Amsterdam. I had never spent such little time seeing a single country, but I still left Belgium feeling like I did it justice.

Amsterdam

Scott and I had been to Amsterdam earlier on our trip but we did not have the best experience. We where staying at a crappy hostel in a bad location and we really did not experience the place the way many other people we met along the way described it. So I figured being so close I would give it a second chance. I booked a much better hostel this time and after arriving in my room I met a girl from San Francisco. A little later some Aussies moved into our room so I decided to grab some Wok to Walk with one of them. (Wok to Walk is a “fast food” spot where they make an amazing stir fry to order.) 

That night I was planning on doing a Red Light District walking tour but after meeting up with the group I decided to do something else. So I went back to the hostel bar where I met some more Australians. We hit it off pretty good and as the night went on we moved around to some different spots around town. Eventually we took our own walk through the red light district and it is pretty much how you would expect it to be. (Sorry no pictures. It is generally advised not to take pictures in the red light district.)

The next day I got up and decided to go on the free walking tour where I met up with the Aussies again. The tour was good and was actually led by a guy from Vancouver. It was kind of cold and rainy but there where lots of cool sights to see. 

On the tour we met some more Aussies that where traveling around Europe in a camper they bought in Britain. Scott and I often thought it would be cool to travel Europe by RV so it was neat to actually meet people that where doing it. That night we started at the hostel bar and hit up some other spots a little later. One notable experience was walking down the road when it started to snow. It was no real big deal for me but the Aussies who had never experienced snow falling where loving it.

The next day was a long travel day through Frankfurt back to Munich for one night. In Munich I was able to get a bed at the same hostel I was in under a week before. That night I had a roommate from Argentina and another from New Zealand. We where all traveling alone and they seemed like alright girls so we all had some beers at the hostel bar that I felt very familiar with.

The next morning it was on to Innsbruck and then St.Anton. I was unable to move into my place the first night, so I met up with Scott and ended up sleeping on his floor my first night in St.Anton. The next day I called my boss and moved into my new apartment that afternoon. 

Innsbruck/St.Anton -Finally finding a job

After our stint in Switzerland it was finally time to find a job in Austria. We both love skiing so it was decided early on that a job in the mountains was a must if we where going to work during our trip. Before we left we had a ski village called St.Anton Am Arlberg chosen as the place we wanted to work. We chose this village because when looking into what the best ski areas where in Europe it was almost always mentioned. This was also part of the reason for getting a working visa in Austria. Before leaving and while traveling we had been looking for and applying to jobs with no success, making the upcoming job hunt very important.St.Anton is about an hour east of the Swiss boarder and about an hour west of Innsbruck by train. It is located in a region called Tyrol. Basically it is in the heart of the Alps. Innsbruck was to be the closest city with cheap accommodation so we decided to stay there while looking for work in St.Anton. We rolled in to Innsbruck Sunday so that we could get a good start on the job hunt Monday.The last time we stayed in Innsbruck was the week after Oktoberfest and the hostel we stayed in was horrible, but it was the only one with online booking. We really did not want to stay in that hostel again so instead of booking ahead we arrived at the tourist information to see if they could help us out. They gave us some options of places to stay and even called one to check the availability for us. It was avaliable, so we walked to the bed & breakfast/hostel. It was actually in an area of town we did not even know existed. As it turned out it was a great location in the heart of the old city just one street over from the Golden Roof. Check in was in a bakery/coffee shop at the bottom of the place. The owner checked us in to a great room and we knew right away this would be a much better place to stay than the other hostel in town. That evening we went down to the Internet café and printed off a bunch of résumés and cover letters in preparation for our job search.The next day we took the hour train ride to St.Anton and followed up on a tip that a good spot to see job postings was at the internet café in town. As it turned out there where 27 pages worth of jobs available, with each page having about 5 jobs on it! Very positive information, at this point we knew we would for sure be able to get find some sort of employment. Another tip we where given at the café was that calling people was the key to “applying” for jobs, email as we had already realized does not get you anywhere. So we emailed some people on the list, but did not stay in town for that long. It was decided that night that we should look into getting a cell phone or handy as they call it in German. The next day getting a handy was task number one. So we checked out a few shops in Innsbruck and the phones and plans where actually quite affordable. Not nearly the hassle and cost like in Canada. So we bought a slightly used phone with a pay as you go plan for about 100 Euros. We where actually very surprised by the service plan. It costs 5 cents a minute to call Canada and 7 cents to call Austrian numbers.
With our new phone we started going trough the list of jobs and called a bunch of people. Some jobs where already taken, some required German, but in the end we arranged a few meetings with people the next day.
The next day at the meetings no one cared to see our resumes and it was all a fairly informal process. As it turned at one of the meetings we got offered a job. The problem was we where being offered one job, so basically we had to decided which one of us would take it. It sounded like a pretty good job making drinks and doing some other kitchen help from 5pm-12am 6 days a week at a local upscale restaurant. Accommodation and dinner would be included, so we both wanted the job. We told the man we would let him know which one of us would take the job and that we defiantly would take it. So we left the meeting and decided that the only way to choose which one of us would get the job is by a coin toss. Joel won the toss, so his job search was then done. Scott now needed to find one. So he made some more calls. While waiting at the train station a person Scott called was able to meet with him right then and he was right by the station so Scott went to go see the guy. This was for a kitchen help job as well, a little different than Joel’s job but roughly the same hours with accommodation and food included as well. Scott pretty much got offered the job on the spot and actually needed to start the upcoming Monday. So he took the job and realized his travel days where done until the end of the season. Needless to say we left St. Anton very happy, the job hunt and the biggest stress of the trip was finally done. To add to the excitement they where calling for one meter of snow over the next 3 days, a very good thing considering it was completely green and the season was to start in a weeks time.
Scott moved into his place on Sunday, November 23. Arl.Rock, a brand new recreation facility where he would be working was just being finished so he was needed first thing Monday morning to help out.

Waking up at 6am and walking through snow a foot high in running shoes made Scott quickly realize he was no longer on holidays. The shoveling for four hours without cloves, a hat or boots made him realize it is time to get a winter shipment from Canada.
Meanwhile Joel was in Innsbruck still in holiday mode. His job did not start until the 9th of December and he could not move into his place until then so he decided to do some more traveling. The rail pass we got was valid until December 10th so he decided to visit some of the places we either missed, or did not spend enough time in.

Bern

We arrived in Bern, the capital of Switzerland to some great weather. 

The hostel we booked was in the heart of the old city which is a UNESCO world heritage site. 

The location was great and we easily found the hostel. That afternoon we settled into our room and met our Aussie roommates. After dinner we hung out at the hostel and then decided to go see if we could catch an English movie. Lucky for us there where a number of theaters close to the hostel playing movies in english. The new bond movie had just come out so we decided to catch that flick. However, after buying the tickets we realized the showing was at 23:oo and not 10. The 24-hour times threw us off so the showing was a little later than we had hoped. We both enjoyed the movie, even if it was the most expensive movie ticket we bought in our lives at 17 francs (about 17 CAD) each.The next day we got up and decided to check out the main Cathedral. The tower gave us a great view of the city. After climbing the tower we checked out the park beside the church. 

It overlooked the river and was a very relaxing spot to hang out. From the park we walked over to the famous bear pits. They where alright but it did not seem like the most humane spot to house a bear. 

That night we once again enjoyed some fine Swiss fondue and rosti for dinner.
The next day we checked out the Einstein Museum. There was an exhibit on the history of Bern on one level and the rest of the museum was dedicated to Einstein and his life in Switzerland. It was a very interesting museum in a pretty cool building. That night we hung out at the hostel and ended up playing UNO with some Aussies we met.
The next day it was onto Zurich where we easily made our connection to Innsbruck.

Interlaken, Switzerland

From Lyon we where to take a train to Geneva where we would make a connection through Bern and then we would eventually make it to Interlaken. This seemed straightforward when got on the train that said it was going to Geneva. However, when we arrived in Annemasse, France, the last stop for the train without ever making it to Geneva we where not quite sure where we went wrong. So we got off the train a little stressed but after looking at a map and talking to information we found out Annemasse is essentially a twin city with Geneva. All we had to do was take a 10 minute train to Geneva and then a 15 minute street car to the main train station.

So we took the short train ride to Geneva and then found the street car we needed to take to the train station. While there we decided to grab a slice of pizza. After paying 10 Swiss francs (about 10 CAD) for this slice we realized we where now in Switzerland and it is not going to be cheap. The train ride from Geneva and the connection in Bern went fine and we arrived in Interlaken at a decent time. It was cold, dark and rainy when we got there, but we found the inn we booked fairly easily. It was a typical Swiss inn that was about 400 years old.

That night we looked for some food, but as it turned out the only place open was a Mexican/Indian food spot so we settled for some samosas and nachos.

Interlaken is a place best know for its extreme sports. The problem is, we where there in between the summer and winter seasons and it was cloudy most of the time so we had to refrain from the skydiving, bungee jumping or canyoning. Instead we took a little easier pace. After having some great Rosti (a fried potato dish with cheese and sausage or bacon) we slowly walked down the main street where we found a knife shop. Until now we really had not purchased any souvenirs, so Joel decided to get a Swiss Army Knife and Scott got a cool wallet.

Later that afternoon we took a hike by one of the lakes. 

That night we had a great cheese fondue in the restaurant at the bottom of our inn and took it easy watching CNN in our room. The next day we took a scenic train ride through the alps to Luzern.

From there we took the hour train ride to Bern where we had our next stay booked.

Lyon, France

The first night in Lyon we took a small walk around but just relaxed for the most part after our full day of travel. When we woke up the next day it was cold and raining. We where not in Spain anymore. So we put on our warm clothes and went out to find some food. After walking around for a little and noticing that a lot of stuff was closed and the restaurants where very busy we realized it was November 11th and that the french must actually get a holiday on Remembrance Day. So we found a small place to eat lunch and once again realized we where no longer on the Iberian peninsula after looking at the prices. The food was really good though. After lunch we walked around town a little and then checked out the Notre Dame Cathedral Lyon. It was a little lack luster inside. From there we walked by the Rhône & Saône Rivers. It was actually nice to see a place that looked like Autum. After walking by the river we hiked up a hill to get a great view of the city. On the top of this hill there was another cathedral, Cathedral Saint-Jean, this one was much more impressive. From the cathedral we took a funicular back down to the city centre. That night everything was pretty much closed and it was still raining so we pretty much just stayed at the room and watched some french TV. The next day it would be on to Interlaken, Switzerland.

Lagos to Lyon

After a nice relaxing stay in Lagos it was time to start making the long trek towards Austria. Originally we had hoped to go down to Morocco for a few days once we where done in Portugal, but after looking into it we realized it was going to cost more in time and money to get down there than we had originally expected. So we decided to leave that trip for another time.

The 5 hour bus to Seville was easy enough. We where unable to find an Internet spot to book a hostel for that night so we decided to go back the the hostel we had stayed in the last time we where in Seville and luckily they had 2 beds available for us. The next day consisted of taking a high speed train from Seville to Barcelona with a stopover in Madrid. We where actually lucky to catch the train we did. (Buying (reserving in our case) train tickets in Spain takes much longer than any other country we had been in thus far. After taking a number you can sometimes wait for up to an hour to get to the counter. It was so bad in Valencia that we just left the station and got the reservation on the day we left.) That day we managed to just get our ticket with about 10 minutes to go through the metal detectors and board the train. From there it was smooth sailing at 300+ km/h across the Spanish countryside.

Upon coming up from the metro station in Barcelona we saw what we thought where protesters on the street right in front of our hostel. However, we managed to just make it into the hostel before the group of what turned out to be people jumping through fireworks and making a bunch of noise filled up the street. We booked two nights in Barcelona, so the next day was spent doing laundry and putting in some much needed internet time. That evening Scott went out to finally report his passport lost (only about 6 weeks and 4 countries later than when he lost it). As it turned out the subway he was on just happened to breakdown, making what should have been a 5 minute trip take over an hour. That night it was early to bed because the plan was to take the 8 am train with 3 connections to Lyon.

The next mourning came and the alarm that we bought in the airport in Toronto managed to fail us for the first and arguably most important time. Of course the real hassle was that we woke up just 20 minutes after the alarm was supposed to wake us, making it not quite possible to catch the train we wanted. After once again waiting in the que at the train station we managed to get information on a train that would get us to Lyon just a few hours later and where assured we would not need any reservations for any legs we would be taking. So we got on the first train and got off at a small station on the Spanish border in France where we were told we could catch a train that would get us to our next connection point. Of course being the smart seasoned travelers we are, we decided to confirm with the ticket agent at this station that we could get on the train we needed to with out a reservation. Through her half french half english she informed us that the train we needed was full and we would have to talk to the conductor to see if we could get on. Not good news. So we put our heads together, got out our train schedule and figured out another connection that would get us to Lyon. We showed the agent what we came up with and she eventually found us an alternative and we booked the seats. So the train finally came and we managed to make in to Lyon problem free from then on. The hotel was easy to find and after realizing how nice the city appeared to be we booked another night there as well.

Lagos

For our second stop in Portugal, we decided to head down to a beach city called Lagos located on the Southern coast on the Atlantic (actually about 20 km from where they thought the world ended). We stayed at a super hostel called the rising cock which came highly recommended to us, and no doubt lived up to the hype. We had our own Portuguese "momma" for our four night stay there, who would insist on making up fresh crepes and lemon tea every day for breakfast! Her constant reminder of the benefits of lemon tea for a hang over, even on the days we didn't have one sure did make me a believer.

Our first full day in Lagos we went for a walk through the city, headed down to the beach, and just checked the place out. It wasn't high season there so it was fairly quite, but none the less still a fantastic town. After that we took care of some administrative things, mainly further planning of the next leg of the trip and made some phone calls home.

The next day was mostly spent once again at the beach, however this time we found a much better spot, surrounded by cliffs and in around many different grottos. This was the main attraction of the town, as the beaches were really quite impressive as you can see for in the pictures. That evening while watching the sunset we even had a friend join us. We named her Randy. She was a cool dog, but no matter how hard to loose her she kept following us. Below is Scott and Randy.

We decided for our last full day in Lagos it was time to be a little more adventurous and rent some scooters to go and check out the surrounding towns. This however did not go off with out a hitch. As we were making trails down the highway (which our scooters were maybe a little to slow to be on, they only had a 50cc engine) we ran into a police check for various traffic violations. Of course Scotts scooter didn't have a working front light which was illegal, so we were sent back to the rental shop, thankfully with no ticket. Of course it was closed for siesta, so we decided to keep going, only to almost run into the same cops in a different location. Thankfully this time we pulled over and parked the scooters without the cops seeing us. So we just chilled out until the cops left their spot allowing us to go through the day with no ticket. All in all it was a fantastic day of checking out the surrounding coastline, as we were able to get out and go places we normally wouldnt have been able to on public tansit.Lagos was a very relaxing stop in our trip, definatly a favourite place.