Eurotrash Update 6

Back in Montana after 4 days of traveling across 2 continents and over the Atlantic Ocean. After Kitzbuhel the weather really warmed up, so we headed to be tourons in Munich, Germany, and where our friend Max had a flight to catch in a few days. We met up with my friend Ashley Bembenek who kindly let us crash on her floor for a few nights, thanks Ashley! Three mountain kids in the big city just led to trouble, after the thrill of skiing looking at old buildings wasn’t really doing much for us, so we did what any ski bum would do… drink.

We did however check out some cool touristy things such as the BMW museum and the Marienplatz square, home to many beer gardens and the Glockenspiel.

The BMW factory and museum

The very famous Glockenspiel

Steve Gilson enjoys a liter of the Haufbrau House Doppel beer

One of the English Gardens was starting to bloom

We also took a short train ride to Dachau, where the first Nazi Concentration Camp is located. It was a very somber experience, and surreal walking the same grounds where such a tragedy took place.

Inside the main building at Dachau, the last place in the world I would ever want to go in the 1930s or 40s.

The main square at Dachau

Where the Dachau barracks used to be.

The main entrance to the Dachau Concentration Camp

After bidding our farewells to Max, Steve and I caught a train south into Italy. With the weather still not cooperating we decided to head for the beach. We took a train to Pisa, Italy, where we figured we could basecamp to get into Cinque Terre National Park, and maybe some other beaches. We spent our first day touring the city on bikes, and even went on a long ride out of the town and through some fields and sketchy squatter camps.

Token tourist shot of the leaning tower of Pisa

Sunset on the Pisa Cathedral

Biking the Italian Countryside

Pisa at night

The leaning tower at night

The next day we caught the train to Cinque Terre, and had the intention of hiking the coast trail. We arrived in Monterosa and did some beach strolling before beginning the hike in Vernazia. The hike was really cool, especially the first section as it reminded me of the Na Pali coast in Hawaii. After the hike we were stoked on the area, and went and made a reservation at the youth hostel in Manarola. We spent the next two days enjoying the ocean, seafood, and of course Italian wine.

Cinque Terre beach in Monterosa

A sailboat in the Mediterranean

Steve scoping the sea from the Cinque Terre trail

Manarola at night, we stayed at a youth hostel in this town.

Sunset

Manarola, Italy

Beautiful Italian sunset

What a great way to end an epic vacation

A fitting end to a great trip

Our last day in Europe was perhaps one of the most stressful days. We woke up early to miss the first train out of Cinque Terre, so for the next 2 hours we chilled and waited in the rain. We also tried to reserve seats on the train to Paris, but the lady said she was having problems and that she couldn’t reserve us seats from Milan to Paris. Steve and I then hopped on the train out of Cinque Terre and at the train station to connect to the train to Milan we found out there were no more seats on the train to Paris. Needing to get to Paris that night so we could catch our flights the next day, we were frantic as to how we were going to get to Paris. We hopped on the train to Milan, and having only 15 minutes to connect to the Paris train in Milan we scrambled to figure out how to get on the train. At the last minute we talked to a conductor who told us for only an 8 euro fine we could ride the train, but we wouldn’t have seats. The train was 2 hours late and as a result we spent the night in the Gare de Lyon train station (A fitting end after our adventure on the first day). We caught the first train to the Airport the next day and made our way back to the States.