Days 13b – 15a: Prague is sick but so am I

I felt myself getting a sore throat while in Munich so I thought a cold may be imminent. I brought some vitamin C from home and quickly burned through it. By the time we reached Prague I had a full blown cold. Not fun.

Our host in Prague unfortunately came down with the flu so we sent a bunch of couchsurfing requests the night before in hopes of getting a text on the train ride over. Nope. We arrived in Prague at 19:30 without a place to sleep for the night. In the train station, much to our delight, the Burger King had free Wi-Fi so we found a hostel within minutes. Without any physical maps we took pictures of google maps so we could navigate to the hostel.

For dinner we found a place on the internet not far away but after walking 100 meters or so we just turned into some place that looked good. We were the only people speaking English so I figured we were in a good place. Amanda just pointed to something on the specials menu and I sifted through the English menu to order a “Charles Potato Pancake.” I don’t who this Charles guy is but he must’ve done something alright to get a whole bridge and a potato pancake named after him in Prague.

We quickly discovered the Prague is a legitimately cheap place to visit. $5 goes a long way. Also, the beer is legitimately cheaper than water.

Lennon Wall. I'm still super sun burnt from skiing.

Over looking Prague

Some graffiti 

Big cathedral

Overlooking Prague

View of Charles Bridge

Some more graffiti

View of the castle and cathedral

Prague was a turning point for me in the trip. Amanda left to Seville after one night in Prague and carry on alone. After Amanda left I honestly didn’t do much in Prague because of my sickness. Luckily I was ready to go again after one day of rest.

Days 11-13a: Winging It

We cut it even closer this time. It wasn't until we were already on the train that we received confirmation that we had a place to sleep in Munich. On the first night, we stayed with a Turkish guy named Baran. He is a business student at the University of Munich. We dropped our bags at his flat an he took us around the city. For only living in Munich for a year, he knew a surprising amount about the history of the city. We eventually had dinner in the most touristy place in town: The Hofbräuhaus. Whatever, it was fun. They had shows consisting of Bavarian dancers and instruments along with traditional Bavarian food. The beers only come in full liters which were almost more expensive then my actual meal.

A lot of old buildings in Munich, like most of Europe, had to be rebuilt because of WWII

Street music

Our host for the following night was a true Bavarian. He had Amanda order the drinks in Bavarian - not German - and also treated us to a traditional Bavarian breakfast the following day. Breakfast consisted of fresh sausage, pretzels, and, of course, weissbier (wheat beer). Bavarian culture is really where all the fun German culture comes from. Think Oktoberfest.  

Days 9-10: Just go with the flow

Let’s see, I left off in Zermatt I think. I’m on a train headed to Munich now so I’ll fill in the gap.

We couldn’t find anyone to couch surf with in Zermatt so we opted for the hostel option. We booked it at 3am the night before (morning of).  This isn’t the last time we’ll be winging it. May is the time when Zermatt practically shuts down and the workers of the town go on holiday. The hostel was huge but practically empty. We almost had the room sleeping eight to ourselves save one lone traveler. For our first and hopefully last hostel experience we lucked out. Dinner and breakfast were provided and were of the quality of the rest of the hostel: superb.

After a comfy night, Amanda and I finished off the ski season on Paradise Glacier at the top of Zermatt reaching poking above 3500m. Unlike in Tignes, this was true summer skiing: very limited runs, no fresh snow, icy in the morning, and slush by the end of the day. Going off piste was out of the question so a carving day it was. I skied a pair of Volkl AC 30 Unlimited which carved extremely well.

Originally the plan was to head straight to Munich for the weekend after skiing. The night before skiing we discovered, much to our dismay, that the route went through Austria. While I love Austria, our rail passes do not. The rails passes only cover Czech Republic, Switzerland , and Germany.  We needed to head north and then east to Munich to avoid a large lake at the northern end of Switzerland. The only city directly north of our location that I had heard of was Freiburg, Germany where I have a standing offer to work next summer.

So Freiburg it is! Where to sleep though? We spent part of the night in Zermatt frantically browsing the couch surfing website. By the end of the ski day we had offers from an exchange student from UT Austin and a native who offered to take us rock climbing. We chose the rock climber and Amanda handled the details via text messaging.

We didn’t meet the rock climber at the station. Instead an older man met us and whisked us away to his car. At first we thought it might be the girl’s dad but after a couple of minutes it became apparent he was not. Amanda had also received an offer to couch surf with this older man but she never replied or so she thought! The website goofed up and the final message to girl with Amanda’s phone number was somehow sent to this man instead. Amanda had been texting the wrong person the entire time!

On the ride to his house we found out he was a physicist at the University of Freiburg and was a pilot for a skydiving company. We kind of mellowed out but both of us were still very concerned. However, this mistake couldn’t have gone any better. We arrived at a gorgeous house and he said we could drop our things here quickly so he could take us on a tour in a more suitable vehicle. That vehicle was a sporty convertible Mercedes. We drove into the Black Forest at lightning speeds reaching 210 km/h at one point! No speed limits for the win. We then popped back into the city to walk around the main area of Freiburg where no cars are allowed.

Everyone we meet seems to be somehow connected to neuroscience. While eating in the medieval section of the city, our conversation eventually drifted to neuroscience. Turns out our host does a lot of computational physics for the neuroscience department at the University of Freiburg.

On Saturdays, our host flies for the skydiving company. It was raining in the morning so he headed off to go shopping in France and we started towards Munich. If it weren’t raining we would’ve went skydiving. It’s only 30 Euro here!

Days 6-8: Grüezi!

I met Amanda at the main train station in Zurich to begin our adventures in the German portion of Switzerland. The spoken language is Swiss German which is very different from German but the written language is German. Just when I was getting use to French... There is a free bike loan program similar to that in Geneva so we took the bikes out for the day quickly scooting from here to there but we didn't really know where here or there actually was. Usually we would bike for 5-10 minutes stop and try and figure out our position. Eventually we did find our way to some cool places. 

The main building for ETH Zurich. ETH stands for Swiss Federal Institute in German. Our hosts were doing their masters here.

View of part of Zurich across the lake.

We spent a lot of time in the starbucks to use the free wifi trying to figure out what to do and how to get there. A lot of attractions were located on Bahnofstrasse which has lots of shops and cafes on it. We ended up eating at Manora for lunch which is a buffet type restaurant on top of one of the only department stores in the city. It was sort of reasonably priced depending on what you put on your plate and pretty tasty. 

When it was time to go the quest to find our hosts' apartment it was raining. I was able to make use of the rain cover for backpack during the 10-15 minute walk. I thought that was cool. Our hosts made for an exciting time during our two night stay. They were all ETH students working towards their masters. When we arrived there were six or seven other people all gathered around to watch Game of Thrones. Everyone stayed well into night for some good conversation. A lot of guys from the neuroinformatics department were there so it was fun to talk some neuroscience.

The next day we were off to Küssnacht to climb some random mountain we found on the internet.

Küssnacht surrounds a lake just like Geneva and Zurich. The fountain is at the center of town.

The Eiger is off in the distance. Watch "North Face" for a good film about an early attempt to climb the Eiger.

View of Küssnacht from above midway through the hike.

We ended up stopping and not climbing up the entire mountain since it was getting late and the hike was already totaling 13-14 km.

Peter and Jan, two of our hosts didn't get back till 9pm or so. We went bar for a couple of drinks but we only bought the first round and smuggled in our own drinks from the apartments. Cheap students for the win. Speaking of cheapness, most of our meals now consist of find the closest Coop (small local grocery store) and buying pre-made sandwiches and pastries.

We spent our last few hours in Zurich kayaking on the rivers. Peter offered to let us borrow a couple of his kayaks. It was difficult to find them since he just marked our map with a pen and said they were in some garage. We also got some looks as we carried them down the sidewalk and past a cafe to the river. We quickly discovered paddling upstream is not fun so our kayaking venture was short lived. It was fun while it lasted though.

After kayaking we jumped on a train to Zermatt. We are staying in a hostel for the night. It's really nice and practically empty. Half-board is included and we are making sure we get our money's worth. We walked around the town this evening and will ski on the glacier in the morning. No cars are allowed in the town. 

View of the Matterhorn

A gorge we found randomly.

We don't have a place to sleep tomorrow as of yet so that's exciting. We are trying to be in Munich by Saturday though.

Days 4-5: The skiing gets better

The last two days at Tignes were extraordinary in all regards. It snowed during the nights and the days were sunny or at least had good visibility. The weather can change quickly up here. One moment it will be very sunny and within minutes a cloud can roll in and cause near whiteout conditions. Since there were so few people on the mountain I could get fresh tracks almost every run through ankle to knee deep powder. At this point the chalet was at half occupancy so we skied together as a group and even with some of the staff. Random note: every time I skied down to a lodge I heard Call Me Maybe. The song has even infiltrated Europe!

I found a nice coulior here. Although the picture doesn't show it, this line is pretty steep. So steep that the first time I skied it, when it untracked, I really had to watch out for my slough (miny avalanche) so that it wouldn't take me out. 

This section was fun to practice hucking small cliffs. The amount of rock showing can be deceive one into thinking the drop is small. The larger sections of rock were about a 30 foot drop (off screen to the left). I stayed clear of those and did the 5-10 foot drops. 

View of Grande Motte from the top of the gondola.

Top of Grande Motte looking at the wonderful Alps

A closer look at Grande Motte. There were three really good lines I took off of here. 

The first was to the left of the face. To the left of the rock line is the coulior shown in the first picture. 

The second was between the face and the crevasses. I only attempted this on the last day when the sun was out and the snow was good. However by the time I skied it, many had taken the line. Near the end it became very steep and was narrow so the fresh snow had been scraped away. This made it pretty treacherous especially when I came to a point where there was line of rock separating me from safety. Only way to go was to point the skis straight and jump. 

The last line was way over on the right on the other side of the crevasses. It is off screen. This run is probably one of the best runs I've ever skied. It was wide open, 800m vertical foot drop, untracked, knee deep, and very steep. I went back and skied it twice more before barreling down the mountain to catch the bus back to the chalet.

A shot from the top of the third line I described off of Grande Motte.

For the first time skiing in Europe I couldn't have asked for anything more. Amazing conditions on a spectacular mountain with a bunch of fun British people from the chalet.

By 16:00 I was back on the road heading back to Geneva. On the way up it was dark and I had fallen asleep so I didn't get to appreciate the beautiful scenery of the drive. After arriving and Geneva and bidding my farewells I hopped on the 18:36 train to Fribourg where I would have my first couch surfing experience. 

I wasn't really nervous but I was a little concerned with the language barrier as my host's profile said her English was not very good. It really wasn't a problem though. We just used google translate when need be. My host, Jacqueline, and her boyfriend were wonderful hosts and cooked a great homemade meal. It's a shame my stay was so brief but I look forward to seeing them again in Houston when they take six months to travel the USA.

As I'm writing this (not when posted), I'm on the train to Zurich to meet Amanda, the first American I will have interacted with since leaving the states.  

Days 2-3: Fresh powder in May? Surely you're joking.

Choosing to stay in a chalet as opposed to a self-catered apartment was a great decision. It's kind of like a little ski club except the residents come and go. L'espace Killy, consisting of Tignes and Val D'isere, provides over 300km of ski-able terrain and is a key destination for the UK folks. As a result many British run chalets are setup much like the one I'm staying in. Everybody eats together and hangs out after skiing sipping on pints and whatnot. It's also easy to find ski partners.

On the first day, I skied with a couple who I met during the ride over to Tignes in the morning before exploring the mountain(s) from edge to edge. The sun was out in force and hardly any clouds in the sky which made for fantastic skiing. By noon or so it was slushy near the bottom but the snow on the glacier remained nice and soft. The Alps are simply amazing, nothing in the US comes close. I was having so much fun I didn't even stop for lunch so I had a solid 7 and a half hour ski day.

The sun was bright so I'm all squinty. Look at those mountains!

View from a chairlift. In Europe it's the law to put the bar down when on the lift. I must admit I forgot to follow this one a couple of times.

When waking up today for the second day of skiing I thought it was going to be whiteout conditions. Thankfully I was wrong and was able to enjoy the most ideal conditions when skiing. Sunshine and fresh powder. We received up to 20cm or so. The conditions are just unheard of for May. It's supposed to snow tonight and the next. Skiing off piste yielded many wonderful, untracked lines. Skied with some South Africans all day and stopped for lunch this time. First time I've ever eaten a pizza with a fork and knife. My pizza had potatoes and prosciutto on it. Delicious. BBQ was for dinner tonight. Definitely was not like Texas BBQ. Hamburgers were eaten with utensils and no buns.  

A nice dusting yielded fresh tracks in  morning. Up to 20cm in some points.

A portion of Val D'isere which closed May 1st

View of some runs leading into Val Claret

Looking forward to another two spectacular days here before moving on. If tomorrow yields similar conditions it will definitely be an off piste adventure day since I am familiar with the pistes now.

And yes I know the pictures are crooked and/or dark but I don't care/have time to edit.

Beginnings

Well I am already two days into my trip so I figure it's about time I start this. For those that don't know, I am backpacking and couch surfing through Europe for the month of May. My plan has changed a lot since first conceived but tentatively I will visit France, Switzerland, Germany, Czech Republic, and Poland. OK, enough introduction. Let's begin.

03-May-2012 Day 1: Parlez-Vous Anglais?

After a great end of the year sundeck party, I realized two things. 1. My bed sheets were packed away. 2. I still needed to book the my lodging for skiing in Tignes the next day. Having nowhere to sleep for four nights would be very bad. All-nighter it is, great. As soon as I boarded the plane I immediately passed out. No soothing music necessary. One connection in Newark and 12 hours later I found myself in the Geneva airport at 7:45 a.m. ready to release my arsenal of French vocabulary. Unfortunately, I exhausted my arsenal shortly after initial greetings. I was told most people know English in Switzerland. Wrong. I encountered only a few who spoke English, even in the airport.

Originally I was going to head straight to Tignes after arriving in Geneva but the company I booked with had their own coach service so I didn't have to worry about taking three trains and a bus. I wasn't to be picked up until 19:30 so I had the day to explore the city. I knew absolutely nothing about what to do other than that there were free bike rentals available. To my great fortune the Geneva airport has free, reliable Wi-Fi and free maps of the city so I was able to find the shop with ease. 

Geneva, like most European cities, has an infrastructure for bicyclists set up which means bikers actually have to follow the street rules. The bike lanes could be a bit confusing because they would vanish all of a sudden. Also, just because an isosceles triangle on the roads points in a certain direction doesn't mean it is the right direction. In fact, it is the exact wrong direction to be headed. Here are some pictures from the day.

Jet d'eau on lake Geneva

Another shot but further east of the city

across the bay

Place St. Pierre

 So I am giving myself two points for not sticking out like a tourist today. Two people on separate occasions stopped me for directions. Of course, my facade ended quickly as soon as I opened my mouth.

After becoming an expert in the layout of Geneva, I successfully navigated back to the airport to begin my departure to Tignes, France. The chalet I am staying at is British run so it's nice to not have to worry about the language barrier.