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.

London part 4

It takes forever to finish my blog in London, coz there are too many things to remember. I like London for its energetic night life and the craziness of people yelling to each other in the night. Totally on the contrary to the gentlemen or elegant ladies in the day time. The other night while I was there, several druken bare-footed ladies shouted each other on the regent street, this scene still remembered in my mind. I guess the reason was that I’ve never seen druken gals nor bare-footed ones in my life, and that atmosphere is just like a reality show and I never expected that will happen next to me.

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National gallery

Mathias strongly recommended me to go there. And I am glad that I went there. I wanted to be a painter while I was a child. I believe the magic of painting is way better than photos. National gallery was one of the best museums I’ve ever visited.

I spent 3 hours sunk in the old history, even if I skipped all the religious or portrait paitinngs, I enjoyed the others very well. It’s def. worth to rent an audio guide and having fun there.

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Oxford

Out of expectation, I spent 2 hours in Oxford but seen nothing. It was cold and raining, I was alone, lost on the street with not tourist direction. So I hopped on the tourist bus tried to take some photos. But the rain told me to stop and find a nice warm place to stay. I did, so I missed most of important colleges in Oxford. What a pity.

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Bicester Outlet

It’s a shame to say that I went to outlet, so I won’t say anything about this.

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Friends

Meeting different tourist is one of the charm in hostels. I met Naoki from Japan while I stayed in the Central YHA. He’s a Japanese dude travelled around Europe by himself.

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English breakfast

I didn’t do too much homework, so I had my English breakfast in a Turkish restaurant. It was nice and tasty, except the beans.

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Blue lady

Under the recommendation of Naoki, I went to the old fashion shop to buy the world famous blue lady as souveniors.

Of all the recorded ghost sightings in North America, more people report seeing a blue lady than any other apparition. We’ve named this blended tea in honor of this representative of the spirit world because of its hauntingly sweet flavor. Passion fruit, grapefruit, orange, and grenadine all mix together to create a citrus flavor that is almost as delicate as the ghostly shadows of the spirits. The sweetness of the citrus mélange blends perfectly with the astringency of our high grown Ceylon tea. Brew yourself a pot, pour it hot, or over a glass full of ice and prepare to be mesmerized.

Bouchon of pigz

Lyon is famous for its food of pork, to be exact, pigs. They almost eat everything of the animal, just like us Chinese. It is said that at the time of war, everything’s precious so that they tried to make the best of resources, which are eating the meat, driking the blood, boiling the organs or even making clothes by the skin of pigs.

Our lovely french buddy, Benjamin with a new hair cut, invited us to a local bouchon for dinner. It was freaking cold outside, nearly 0 degree and few people standing on the streets. The bouchon is located in a tourist place, Vieux Lyon, but hidden in a silent street. We booked the table for 4 at half pass eight.

Before entering the room, there’s a sign on the door of the restaurant “We don’t welcome people who are not hungary enough.” Which means, hey hell, they provide quite a huge amount of food. We had been told this rule after we ordered, smart Benjamin.

It’s a pleasure to have a real french explain the menu for us. Then we didn’t have to guess or ask the non-English speaking waitress. But basically the menus were all made of pig or cows. Sausage, pig foot, salami, and the small plate served on the table was fried-pig-fat.

I ordered a mix pig plate for entree, organ pot for main dish and citron ice for dessert. The organ pot was made of potatoes, carrots and a whole stomach of cow. I got really full can barely finish my food. Now I now that the traditional restaurants cares quality but also QUANTITY.

The night in Lyon was nice, she’s not my favorite city in Europe but she’s got her own charm.

Turkish dinner, with doma and raki

  A nice Turkish dinner

Often times i think Turkish people are one of the most friendly kinds in the world, behind Taiwanese of course ;P Yesterday the Wangs and I had a wonderful Turkish dinner with our lovely friends, Ebru, Cagatay and Deniz and guest Pascal in their kitchen. The best thing was that it was the first time Ebru made the traditional Dolma (click the link to see recipe) by herself.

Dolma (pl. dolmas or dolmades or "(stuffed) grape leaves) is a family of stuffed vegetable dishes in the cuisines of the former Ottoman Empire and surrounding regions such as Russia, Iran and the Caucasus and Central and South Asia. Perhaps the best-known is the grape-leaf dolma. Common vegetables to stuff include zucchini, eggplant, tomato and pepper. The stuffing may or may not include meat. Meat dolma are generally served warm, often with sauce; meatless ones are generally served cold, though meatless dolma are eaten both ways in Iran. Both are often eaten with yoghurt.

Ebru said that it was her first time to make such complicated thing, dolma is a common food in Turkey but mostly in lokanta(Turkish: restaurant). It takes a lot of time to wait and they usually use a big pot to cook the food. So for Ebru, it is such a challenging work. She called her mom for recipe and then prepare materials later. We could not find the proper “Paprika” as containers since they were way too big to cook!

The Chef, Ebru Aslan

The first assistant, Cagatay Ata
(Ebru: WTH you put your hands in the pocket!)

The thing is that Ebru called her mother for help some times, it reminds me that everytime I had a hard time in cooking I just try to copy how my mom cook and do the same thing, intend to get the hang of cooking. I guess everyone child can not live without parents.

The taster, Deniz Sehen

The culture of Turkey is similiar to ours, which is “Men don’t cook.” So that most of time the jobs of Cagatay and Deniz were washing dishes or picking up leaves foe salad. Ebru was the one ran back and forth the kitchen.

In order to payback, I’ve also prepared 3 dishes for them, sea shells, boiled broccoli and french frites(for that, I bought 2 KG of frozen frites) and cooked in simple way.

The table with foods.

And here came the drink. Raki is a conventionally liquird in Turkey with 45% of alcohol. Lan brought the thing from Turkey and from a friend of his. They’ve stored the bottle for over 9 years, it was even produced bt the Turkish government. Raki should pronounce like “roke” just like a rocker.

Wine promoter, Joey Hsu

The best way to have raki was having some cheese, yogurt salad and mixed raki with water (became white turbid). Accompanied with traditional raki music. After a sip of raki, drink some water to wash the flavor last in your mouth.

The eater, Lang Wang

We had the dinner for 5 hours including preparation time. Everyone helped a little with the food. Except Pascal. During the Turkish music playing, we chitchatted a lot about life experiences and gossips. It’s quite a pleasure to talk with the guys.

Old raki.

Serefe! Cheers! Ho-da-la!

 

Here’s the living recipe of making of dolma:

1. Find paprika and clean the middle part

2. Prepared rice, put some olive oil to mix’em.

3. Seasoning: put tabak sauce and pepper on the rice and mix properly.

4. Fill the paprika with rice. Don’t put too much inside!

5. Just like this one, depends on experience.

6. Boil them with sauce and water.

7. Wait until the paprika shaded yellow color and the rice’s ready.

 

=== THE MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL ===

 

Call your mother if you’re not sure of any process.

London part 3

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Look right

On every pedestrain way, you’ll see this sign painted on the ground, since the traffice direction is different from UK to European continent. So they ask everyone watch out for the traffic before you go across the road. But same thing happens, NOBODY CARES!

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Rememberance day

While I was in London, I saw almost every people wore a poppy flower. So I bought one from a boy scout. The I realize the flower was ode for rememberance.

Remembrance Day is also known as Poppy Day, because it is traditional to wear an artificial poppy. They are sold by the Royal British Legion, a charity dedicated to helping war veterans.

But why a poppy?

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Tate Modern

 

Mathias’ strongly recommendation, and it turned out to be one of the best museums I’ve ever visited.

Tate Modern is a modern art gallery located in London, United Kingdom. It is Britain's national gallery of international modern art and forms part of the Tate group (together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool, Tate St Ives and Tate Online).It is the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, with around 4.7 million visitors per year. It is based in the former Bankside Power Station, in the Bankside area of Central London.

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Musical

I didnt make it to watch the musicals in London, it was quite a shame but OK for me. There are so many theaters for musicals or operas in Soho area. Grasp a night over there might be nice.

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Pattycoat lane market

We went pattycoatlane for bargains. But it was like an traditional market for locals and cheap but quality concerned clothes along the street. Like a window-shopper, we were impressived by the yelling vendors and so many people crowded on the street. Buying nothing.

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Old truman brewery

 

The Old Truman Brewery is the former Black Eagle brewery complex located around Brick Lane in the Spitalfields area, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The former Brewery buildings, warehouses and yards were redeveloped by The Zeloof Partnership and now house over 250 businesses, ranging from cultural venues to art galleries, restaurants, and retail shops.

After pattycoat lane, we walked along the Indian district. Heading for Truman Brewery for more fun. It’s a paradise for people who’s interested in culture or creativity business. So many youngasters have a stand over there selling their owned designed clothes. And at the entrance, there are stands for exotic foods.

On the street, there’s a long vintage shops. As always, I bought nothing from vintage. So proud of myself.

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Brick lane bakery

It was said to be the oldest bagel shop in London. And the bagels were YUMMY!! and soooo cheap. I can eat 3 bagels alone by myself.

 

(To be continued)