Getting Off at Basel
Okay, picture this. It's the evening of September 29th. You just changed your flight out of Helsinki to tomorrow morning since your dad wants to go home early. In just over two weeks' time, your mom will be meeting you in Munich. What do you do in between? That's what I'm about to tell you.
My flight out of Helsinki took me directly to Riga, Latvia, where I'd spend the next two nights. Riga was an abrupt shift from the expense and culture of Finland, but I loved it all the same. Seeing bits of crumbling Soviet architecture along with new modern builds, designed to match the tone of the old city, was a unique juxtaposition, and unlike anywhere I'd been.
The national library especially was a sight to behold. I overheard one woman complaining that “Well at least it is nice on the inside. I don't know what [the architect] was thinking on the outside.” But she failed to appreciate the symbolic nature of the building and ties to Latvian history, and how its design fit in with the rest of the city's architecture. But everything is subjective I guess, and that seems like a her problem. I for one enjoyed seeing and experiencing it.
A short bus ride took me across the border to Lithuania, where I spent two nights in the capital city of Vilnius instead of Kaunas like originally planned, which was the advice from hostel mates in Riga. I didn't do much but walk around the city and taste the vibe, plus a tour of a former prison turned film set. Kaunas got an afternoon on the way to Warsaw, which was long enough to visit the cute little Kiemo Galerija.
Poland, Poland, Poland — what a pleasant surprise! This will be a hotspot tourist destination in no time. I managed to cram a couple extra days into my travel schedule here mostly due to chance, and I'm glad I did because it was well spent. While I'm sure there's a lot to do in Warsaw, my activities were mostly walking and eating hot dogs. It was nice, but not the highlight of the country. One thing I have to note is that this was my first introduction to Poland's Żabkas. It's like the 7-11 of Poland, and they are everywhere. I'm almost certain there are spots in Warsaw where you can get 3-4 different shops within line of sight. But boy, they sure are convenient, and it introduced me to the superior form of hot dogs where the hot dog slides into the bun rather than having a slit on one side where everything falls out. This is probably a thing in America, but American gas station hot dogs don't sound very appealing.
Another fun memory from Warsaw was on a cold, rainy evening while I was walking back to the hostel for the night. I came across a few cars lined up and angrily honking at a driver who was worried he didn't have enough space to make it between two parked vehicles ahead. Unfortunately someone with a large utility van parked like an asshole and was blocking much of the already very tight street. So, after initially walking past, I walked back to help guide the poor soul and ensure he wouldn't cause damage to any of the vehicles involved. His caution was well warranted. I wish I would have taken photos, but even for the smaller European hatchbacks, there wasn't more than a centimeter on either side as he squeezed through.
He showed as much appreciation as he could through his windshield and we both went on our ways. But the driver next in line pulled forward to slip past like the driver before him, as if it were such a menial and simple task — one that a small child or well trained dog could complete. And then stopped. He looked at me. I looked at him. Who's gonna get honked at now, idiot.
His look rapidly turned into more of an apology and plea, recognizing the error of his ways, and obviously I couldn't just walk away after helping one person, so I guided him, and then the next person, and right as a third car was about to make it through, a flood of new cars lined up behind. This might be a while. Thankfully, as I'm directing cars through this narrow passageway in the rain for several minutes, the owner of the car opposite of the poorly parked utility van recognized what was going on while dining inside, and came to move their vehicle (even though they were parked perfectly correctly). Either out of good will or fear of getting their own vehicle damaged, it didn't really matter — I was free to go home.
So that's how I became an unpaid director of traffic in a foreign country where I didn't speak the native language. It turns out rudimentary hand signals like ‘forward’ and ‘left, right, lef—STAAHP!' are universal. So much for nothing happening in Warsaw.
Because of the extra time I already had in the schedule, I ditched Warsaw a night early to make room for a new city entirely. I made my way on a late train to Kraków, a city I wasn't planning to visit until a month later in a different phase of my travels. Nature is very well integrated into this city, and a giant park ring completely circles the touristy historical center, which made it pleasant to walk everywhere. Really the only thing I cared to accomplish here was to find an internet cafe and play some Counter-Strike, which I did and had a blast. It would have been nice to play with friends back home, but ping would have been high, and due to the time zone differences I would have needed to stay up rather late into the evening which I don't really care to do.
I got on a train in Kraków and made my way to Katowice, only spending one night there, but WOW! Kato at night has turned out to be one of my favorite places in Europe and I want to go back. Between the light rain covering the ground, neon lights reflecting everywhere, trams zigging and zagging in every direction — often multiple appearing out of nowhere at once — everything about the city was perfectly moody. It felt like I was in a city from the future, in the past, if that makes sense. I think for most people Kraków is the ideal tourist destination in this region, but if I had to pick between the two for next time, I'm definitely picking Katowice.
After Kato I made my way to Gdańsk for a few nights where I got to climb up an old shipyard crane (Żuraw M3) and get a view of the city and shipyards from above. Then to Poznań for an afternoon before departing Poland for Germany after a week there. Unknown to me I missed seeing the Poznań goats by eight minutes because I stopped for coffee. What makes it worse is that if I'd gotten my coffee to-go I would have made it there with perfect timing, and no planning in advance. You win some you lose some.
On the train to Berlin, I met Anna and Kasia (Katherine but in Polish). They were both LOVELY humans. Anna taught us about how all the intercity trains are named and operate, and was making her way back to Barcelona. After getting off the train, Kasia taught me how to use the S-Bahn, something which would be useful in Munich as well. She also explained how easy it was to find the right train - it either goes the way you want, or the way you don't want. I don't know why, but it's like all public transportation clicked with me in that moment. I wish I would have tried more of the food recommendations I got from both of them, and exchanged contact information! I would love to be able to talk to them, but instead they are just transitory friends I had for a few hours as our lives converged, then went on our own separate ways for the rest of eternity.
Berlin itself was lovely, and I preferred it to Munich, though that's based on limited experience. The vibes of the city were less posh and more human. In addition to the Berlin Wall, Berlin was my chosen destination to play chess in public, one of my goals for the trip. I found Stranger Chess to play with a fun group. Everyone said they were bad at chess, but they were 1500 Elo bad, whereas I'm 800 Elo bad. It was still a fun night, and I had a great time meeting those people.
On the way to Prague I stopped in Dresden to visit a little creamery with unique tiling on the walls and glasses of milk for one euro. Prague itself was definitely one worth going to. The castle wasn't much of a draw to me but I still walked up the hill and around. Crossing the Charles Bridge and walking around downtown with old churches and tiled roofs was great. Stará Dobrá had a lava-cake type chocolate dessert which was 10x better than Domino's.
What was really special about Prague was the Klementinum. I love me a good library, and this might be my favorite non-modern one I've visited. The tour also climbs the clock tower for a view over the city, which would have been worth it on its own. But you can't actually go inside the library. The tour walks you to the gallery and you look at it from there, which is probably for the best.
The hostel crew here was a lot of fun too, though I think I started a separatist movement among those in my room. It was an alcohol-heavy hostel, and on the first night everyone joined in but me (I stuck with my water). On the second day though, I went to a classical music concert and walked around at dusk with a lovely French woman named Lena. After getting back to the hostel, we started playing a card game I didn't fully understand, and got a young Danish girl to join us, and another guy, and had a good game going. When the drinking started, we were having too much fun to stop and join the other group, so we kept doing our own thing. The hostel staff trying to sell drinks didn't seem to love this, but we had a great time. Not exchanging contact information with Lena or the Danish woman was a shame on my part, as they would have been great to keep in touch with for any future travel plans throughout Europe.
With all the fun in Prague, I actually tried to extend another night, and did so, but when I showed up for a siesta at 14:00 after walking around all morning, someone else was already in my bed, and my belongings were on the other side of the room. I guess it didn't get recorded properly. So I ended up doing a 3 PM checkout, and since my plan to go to Nuremberg was inconvenient by train, and more expensive than planned, I caught a spontaneous overnight train to Zurich of all places! Within an hour I was on my way.
This was my first time on a sleeper train, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. It was a bit cramped, and I did not sleep well. I was on the top of three bunks, and the strap connecting the edge of the bed to the wall made it really awkward to lie down, and it just plain and simply was too short and small for my stature. It was only one night, though, and it really didn't ruin anything for me.
On the train, a German man got on in Dresden (the train goes north from Prague, through Dresden, to Western Germany and then south before making its way to Zurich) and said he was going to Basel. Basel sounded interesting, and I hadn't done any research anyway, so when I woke up early in the morning I just got off the train. What a joy! Basel was such a beautiful city. I ended up spending much of the day there before heading to Zurich for the night. I had a limited timeline due to my mom's flight landing in Munich the next day. Highlights of Basel include drinking water from a fountain, walking along the river, seeing three countries at once, and stepping into France for several seconds, one more country on this journey around the world!
In Zurich even though time was limited, I discovered on the train ride there that they had the second most valuable bill in the world (1,000-franc, approximately $1,200 USD at time of writing). I was already planning to get the 5-franc coin, so what's another grand on a bill to use as a bookmark? The thing I hate the most though, is that I like the 200-franc bill, featuring the right-hand rule more. I might use the 1,000-franc as emergency cash to exchange in the future.
So am I doing what's right? I keep forgetting to ask. I just spent $1,200 on a piece of paper to use as a bookmark, and I almost exclusively read digital books. But I've played some good chess. Went on some nice hikes. I'm checking most of the boxes I wanted to this year. And directing traffic in the rain has to count for something. Simplify — going less well. Three more weeks with my mom, and then the check comes due.