Snowy Southern German: Berchtesgaden

Almost the whole Alps region covered with white white snow last Thursday night. The fresh look gives me the other motive to explore Europe again. More or less, staying dormitory doing online shopping was such a waste of time. So there I am, started an unexpected tour in Munich and surrounding area, with my newly baby camera and laptop, I am going to do an experimental travel, a rehearsal of the big journey afterwards.

Things always began with transportation, this time I choose to take mid-night bus from Lyon to Munich, according to time table, hop on the bus at 21:30 and I suppose to arrive at 10:45 next morning. They didn’t tell me that I have to transfer bus but told me after the bus started. So I couldn’t sleep since I had to transfer at the 3rd stop. 23:30, we arrived Dijon, I’ve just finished a fiction talked about witches became a hot chic. The driver didn’t broadcast anything but stopped the bus and wait for people taking off. It was a bad sign, which means that people have to be cautious which stop they’re going to take off. So I stayed awake until I couldn’t help with it, 4:00 am we arrive Straussburg. Torn between sleep or not to sleep, I suffered a lot. 5:15 am, we arrived the transfer stop in Germany (I couldn’t remember the city). We were asked to transfer here and waiting for the bus in the middle of no where, only chilly wind and flying snow flake. They said that the bus will come in 15 minutes. It was cold but my heart was warm since there were 4-5 travellers also headed for Munich as I am. We talked and shared food together. There’s a guy from Nigeria said that he had waited the bus for 3 hours. We’re shocked and hope that would happened to us.

After 1 hour and 20 minutes of waiting, 5 sleepy and frozen people hopped on the other bus. I fell asleep on this one but woke up several times, I saw the snow covered the trees and plan and everything underneath the sky. It was awesomely beautiful but I was too tied to take photos. 10:53, we arrived Munich.

The Christmas was silently soming to town, everything were decorated with xmas related character. Made the station alive. My first destination was Berchtesgaden, so I needed to transfer train to the little town next to Austria. I did some homework and knew that I have to buy “Region ticket” so that save money in transportation.

The billet machine was friendly with several languages, English was included for sure. But suddenly I realized that something was wrong. When I choose the “Region ticket” button, the machine asked me

Bavarian ticket? Bayern and other region ticket?

I was confused. Everyone on the Internet said that we have to but “Bayern” region ticket but the machine strongly indicated me to buy the Bavarian one. I was panic and tried to find the tourist office for help. (It was 15 minutes before my next transfer train.) I was impatiently waiting in the quene, but knowing nothing what to do. When the lady in tourist office told me with sunny smile that:

Bayern is Bavarian. Bayern is in german and Bavarian is in English.

I wanted to kill myself. But nontheless, I miss the transfer train so that wait in the train station for the next one. I went to Burger King (which is very rare in France) and as usual I oredered Happy Meal. Played with the new camera, waiting for the train to come. It was not that bad that I can observe people passing by. There must be a football match tonight so there were many young guys wore “Munchen” scarf yelling to each other in the station.

50 minutes later, I hopped on the train to Berchtesgaden. I met two German guys from Munich, they wanted to go Salzburg for holiday off. We chitchiat almost everything, for example the dude had been to Thailand 3 monthes so that he taught me Thai, and we shared stupid jokes like “An Indian guy went to an Italien restaurant…”

They recommend me this beer, and we left contact infos of each other. We said that we should meet each other after we go back to Munich. It was nice to talk to local, knowing more about the people here. If we had the chance to meet each other, I am gonna ask them take me to Hofbanhaus.

Cons of travel alone: Take photos by yourself.

Cons of travel alone: Buy the ticket yourself.

3 hours later, I arrived the small town, Berchtesgaden, which I can never pronounce by myself. The village was near the Alps and covered by snow. I’ve seen this scene in Hokkaido but this was the first time I walked on the frozen street. I felt excited to walk and a little bit of scare, because it seems that I walked on the motor way but still couldn’t find my hotel.

Walk alone on the frozen street.

After 10 minutes, I found my hotel one the other side of the road. Checked in and put luggages on my room. It was so nice that I booked an single room, I have a TV set and a lamp. My bathroom even got heated.

Then I decided not to waste the rest of the day. I went out and heading for the zemtrum. Unexpectedly, there’s a Xmas market going on!

One panoramic view.

It must be the earlist Xmas market! But I am glad that I have the chance to experience Xmas so early. I saw everyone holding a cup and then I followed the crowd ordered the same thing. It was the mix of wine and tea, called Rotertweisser gluhwein Alkoholfreior Punsch mit Haferl. The best thing of all, I can take the cup home :)

The stands of the market sell Xmas decoration and warm drinks. Everyone seems so happy that the holiday is coming. The trees and roofs were covered with snow leftover, made it more Xmas-like.

I met some local teenagers and they were friendly and English spoken! (Not like the ones I met in London was drunk and rude.) They even asked me if I needed help with taking pictures. I said yes please and asked pass-by took this picture for us.

I had my dinner in a Web-to-mouth restaurant. Almost every Taiwanese blog mention this restaurant. “Basthof Bier Adam”

The whole room was decorated with Xmas elements.

When I entered the restaurant, I felt warm and hospitility. The waitress smiled to me and asked me in English. I ordered and Farmer’s feast, consist of roast pork, smoked belly pork, meat loaf and sausages on a bed of sauerkraut, served with bread dumplings.

The meat mountain.

And a radler (50% beer, 50% lemonade).

The meal was tasty but tooooo much meat for me. It was a little bit too salty but perfect matched with the sweet beer. I enjoyed the time I spent there. Seen so many families came in and share the same table. I wondered every german hold a strong family value, every child in the family was underneath of the wings of parents. I saw Mathias’ face after he got the package from his grandma, and the smile and satisfactory expressed on the kids next to my table.

The last moment of the day, I sat on the hotel bed, typing this blog. There are so many obstacles happend on my trips but I’ve always taken them as remarks of the journey. I’ll never forget the Bayern and the Bavarian thing.