That Sunday I met with Jeremy (festerwretch) at the x-mas market! More pictures and the full story now available under: http://www.travbuddy.com/travel-blogs/45705/30-November-2008-HRC-meeting-TB-silkimjukur-Berlin-4

I took the Berlin Lichtenberg to Krakow Główny overnight train. I rode in the Wagon Sypialny / Спальный Вагон / Schlafwagen / Voiture Lits / Carrozza Letti … oddly, it never said “Sleeper Car” in English … anyway. Aside from the normal sleeping in a train issues, this was not a bad night’s sleep. The only issue I had was that it was super hot – but we cracked the window a bit, and all was well. The conductor met us all as we came in, and did not bother us at all during the night, then in the morning he brought us each a “7 Days” croissant (chocolate filled) for breakfast. The compartment fit three people, and had a closet, sink and compartment with had a bottle of water for each of us, plus a soap and towel package, again, one for each of us. All & all, not bad, we left 40 minutes late and arrived on time, so … no complaints.

Today, Erik & Kristin left early for the airport - long before I was awake.  Thankfully the apartment we had rented did not need us to check out until late afternoon, so I slept in for the first time since traveling with Erik & Kristin. :D 

I got in contact with Silke (silkimjukur) as she said she'd be happy to come up to Berlin for a mini-meet-up.  This was about noon or 1PM and she said she wouldn't make it until some time after 4PM, so I decided that I could check out the area near the Zoologischer Garten as the three of us did not have much time in that area (so... I had to take the U2 to Zoo Station ... no joke).  Walking around, I came across the Hard Rock Cafe, and not having had a good burger in a few months, and also the fact that I've been to quite a few HRCs in my life (the list is at 8 now - off the top of my head, I'd have to think about it more to know if that's right - Chicago, Orlando, Los Angeles, Key West, Las Vegas (though, I ate at Pink Taco which is in the Hard Rock Casino, not the cafe itself), Copenhagen, Amsterdam and now Berlin) - I thought the Berlin one was pretty sterile ... the food was good, as was the service, but the atmosphere wasn't quite Hard Rock-ey for some reason - not the aura I usually feel at one.  Whatever, this is not a review of that... point is, eventually I ended up at Alexanderplatz to meet with Silke.  I jokingly said I'd have a crazy pink flower - thanks to this picture:

http://www.travbuddy.com/photos/blogs/1503895

...and, oddly as I was walking to Alexanderplatz, I noticed a flower shop with a big flower - different than the one in the picture above, but ... yeah, you can see in the pictures below.

Anyway, we walked around the Christmas market, went on the Ferris Wheel, went into a church, had just a taste of Glühwein and ... am I forgetting anything from Alexanderplatz?  I think from there we went on to my train station in Lichtenberg, where nothing was open, so we went to a nearby "old man bar" for a beer before my train left.

Fun Sunday.  All pictures are taken by Silke by the way, if you enjoy them & smile at them, give her a smile too at:

http://www.travbuddy.com/silkimjukur

Oh, I should note, I tried not to upload too many duplicates of Silke's blog pictures... but there are a couple.  Also, notice how she didn't get any pictures with her in it - so I guess there is no REAL proof that we met. :D

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We went to Trier for the Christmas Markt after hearing that it was a good one.  We had only been to one other Christmas Markt and it was nothing special, so I was looking forward to Trier.  We parked in a parking garage and came out right across the street from the Porta Nigra.  This was an impressive sight.  I didn't realize it would be as BIG as it actually is!  We started off by walking around just to see everything first. 

We walked the streets and went to the Cathedral as well as the Imperial Baths.  Everything was so festive and welcoming!  The whole family had a great time!

Coming soon...

Munich is one of the more expensive places in Germany and so we were struggling to find somewhere that was nice and cheap. Finally we stumbled across Haus International, a tram ride from the centre of Munich and more like the prices we had experienced elsewhere in Germany. Our room was tiny. Two single beds, a sink and a locker with not much space left over. However, it is a youth hostel and so not a lot more could be expected. Breakfast the next day wasn't the best. Continental breakfast but below the high standards set elsewhere in Germany. Quite a lot of youths were in the hostel at the same time as we were but we didn't notice much noise at all - perhaps we got lucky, not sure. Shared bathroom down the hall was pretty good! Each keycard is assigned to male or female person so that only the right sex can enter each bathroom (I'd just like to mention here I was NOT trying to get into the girls bathrooms! You have to check the card works though don't you...) There is also a disco downstairs in the basement

The journey back from Luxembourg was disastrous. As soon as we got over the border in to Germany our train was delayed. It was further delayed once we reached Mainz and by the time we got to Fulda we had missed the last train home to Lauterbach. Fortunately, Deutsche Bahn do offer a complimentary taxi if you have missed your connection due to delay. Once we had sorted this out we got a taxi back to my flat in Lauterbach and collapsed, completely worn out from a fabulous whistle stop tour of three brilliant cities.

I must be honest, I was astonished at just how good this hotel is. If you have business around the Hahn area in Germany I seriously recommend this hotel. The rooms were, quite simply, brilliant. I was a bit wary since it said 2* hotel and it was right opposite the airport so you'd expect it to be noisy but you couldn't have wanted more from an overnight stay. Flat screen TV with cable, comfortable bed, tea&coffee facilities, colourful and the en-suite was first class. Breakfast the next day went down well too! Only continental breakfast but it is buffet. A great overnight stay.

When I visited the Sol I Luna first time it was a spontaneous decision. I was with a hungry friend and there was just nothing else, which looked intresting to him (he's a bit choosey^^). At first sight it looked like a rustic Tapas-bar. However, it turned out to be a restaurant, which comes up with a cook who has an impressive vita. Therefore, the Sol I Luna doesn't offer only the ordinary dishes you find almost everywhere, but dishes for every taste and from different cultural backgrounds in a quality, which makes the price seem ridicoulous. THe menu changes from time to time and offers a large range of dishes - also concerning desserts. Even browsing the list of desserts makes one's mouth water - at least this is was happened to me^^ On Sundays, there is a large breakfast buffet for 8 Euro which has everything one could dream of in the morning. Moreover, there are lots of seasonal specials like different menues during Christmas holidays, a special dinner for New Year's Eve etc. To sum up Sol I Luna offers very good service and various delicious dishes for a moderate price. If I wasn't on diet all the time I would go there regularly :-)

more details later with pics....

I liked this place, my room had a Jazz theme with pictures of Louis Armstong and the singer Marion Anderson, which I loved! It was a nice room, the staff was friendly and I had a nice minibar : ) Theres a restaurant and bar too there, its not to far from the Bonn bahnhaupt. I found this place while i was walking looking for a place to stay

When I got to Frankfurt and left the Main BHF I didnt book a hotel or hostel so I figured I would settle on the first place i would see and across the street was a yellow sign 'Hostel' This hostel set up is weird. The reception is on the 3rd floor and when u get in the elevator/ lift it feels like a death trap! : ) The sign says ' Maximum 4 people' but with 3 people with bags, jesus that was a tight squeeze... Anyways this place is packed, I would have to say this is the one of the most popular Hostel in the Frankfurt Main city. Another weird problem I had was my hostel key, when i got to my room I could not figure out how to get in, like an idiot I tried to slide the card along the door, (keyless entry) but someone was able to stop by and tell me I needed to press my key along the door button 'click' and it went green. Nice bar, bunk beds are okay and they provide a towel. Staff are friendly and multi-lingual. And the location is perfect if you have never been to Frankfurt before...cant really miss your train

The journey back was not so bad. Learning from experience we got on the coach early and pushed our chairs right back. The coach was nowhere near as full so no one had to suffer bad leg room behind us! Since we were leaving at around 16:00 on the 30th we were able to see more of Poland by daylight and some truly beautiful scenery. I would recommend Poland to anyone, especially Krakow. An amazing city.

Finally we arrived back in Braunschweig at around 03:30 the following day. Since the first trains back to Fulda weren't until around 05:30, this meant sleeping in the station for two hours before catching the train back. We set our alarms so not to miss our trains but we needed have bothered; the drunks coming back to catch the trains to the smaller villages around Braunschweig came into the station at around 5 and we couldn't get much sleep from then on.

Finally, at around midday I arrived back in Lauterbach (Hesse) and went straight to bed, sleeping right though until the next morning when I had to get up for work.

A tiring but fantastic experience which has given me a lot of confidence to travel and explore using all sorts of transport, meeting all sorts of people and enjoying all sorts of cultures. The journey was tough but it was well worth it in the end.

The people in front of us had their chairs right back on our laps. Like a famous British monarch, "we were not amused". However, the journey didn't start too badly. It was quite stuffy on the coach but once we got moving we were quite excited about what lay ahead and began reading, eating haribo and chatting.

Just as the journey was starting to get a little uncomfortable we stopped for a well needed break. Frankfurt an der Oder was the service station and it was quite interesting to note that it was the former border control between Poland and Germany (now closed due to both countries being in the European Union). We had absolutely no idea how much time we had on this break (since the driver was also Polish and spoke only in Polish!) but our new found heroin informed us it was a 20 minute break. We took the chance to exchange up a bit of money in to Zloty (note: not all money. we only wanted enough so that if we stopped again - which we did do - and we needed local currency, we had some available)

Back on our way again and we decided to get some sleep. This was rather difficult as we stopped for a break every 3 hours or so (or if there were actual stops, sometimes shorter than that). However, before we knew it the sun was waking up over Poland.

A few changes later and we arrived (hot, smelly and tired) at Krakow bus station.