Debrief: Munich & Salzburg

Eventually, I was alone on the train. The woman, the kid, and the old man, all got off at various points as the sun dipped behind the hills. My trip came full circle. I’d started alone, on a train, in the dark, and now, three hours outside of Prague, I was again alone, on a train, in the dark.

I finished proofreading the last of my Barcelona posts on my laptop. As I saved the last one, I thought to myself, I’m never going to be able to share those memories with anyone except myself. As soon as I thought that, I realized, that’s kind of cool! It is sort of exciting to have a memory that no one else has but me. It was an adventure that I went on, with only myself, and just as travel companions grow deeper, I’d learned to trust myself more.

At the same time, this past weekend in Munich had been awesome. It was so nice to be with Matt and Lizzy. Travelling in a little “family” unit was a nice change of pace from being alone or having passing encounters with other students and strangers. I can’t thank them enough for their friendship and hospitality!

Bavaria was exactly what I’d hoped it would be. Berlin had been so modernized. Dresden was so small. Bavaria felt like stepping into a new world. From the beautiful mountain countryside, to the fairytale palaces, to the recent world history, everything about this place felt magical.

The story of King Ludwig certainly is one of the more memorable tales I’ve heard in travelling. To me, it is another reminder that everyone just wants the freedom to be happy. Everyone gets thrust into situations they didn’t want and we all develop coping mechanisms to handle them. It’s easy to judge someone else’s behavior as “mad” when it differs from the norm, but we are all just trying to grab onto this story of life and make some meaning out of it. (Although if I were a gambling man, and we were in Vegas…my money would be that Ludwig wasn’t 100% with it.)

Salzburg was amazing! Certainly one of the top 5 cities I’ve seen so far. I would definitely go back there someday. While it was cool to see and recognize some of the sites from The Sound of Music, it was also cool to see another amazingly historic city. All of these cities in Europe are so intertwined. I think in America we miss that sometimes. We don’t realize that the kingdoms of Bohemia and Bavaria and England and Aragon and…they were all allying and competing (often simultaneously) for generations. Christopher Columbus frequented Salzburg before he left Barcelona to discover the West. It’s all an amazingly complicated story.

Of course the most incredible “piece” of the story (for me at least) was to see where Chamberlain gave away the Sudetenland, thus sealing the fate of the Czech Republic. Having now lived in Prague for over two months, seeing the remnants of both Nazism and Communism, this was the place that doomed the country to its fate. That was pretty incredible to see.

As I said, I can’t thank Matt and Lizzy enough for having me to Bavaria. It was a relaxing weekend, filled with a beautiful culture, and enchanting memories of a great kingdom! Thank you both for letting me join the adventure with you!