Exploring Germany: Frankfurt and Heidelberg

Lastly but certainly not the least, I was headed to Frankfurt. At Frankfurt central station my mum was waiting for me in front of my platform and I was sooooo happy to see her <3 I didn't want to cry but I would be lying if I said no tears of happiness were unleashed(:-D).

Once again we got acquainted with the chinese block while we walked to our hotel. Mum had arrived earlier than me, so she already had checked in and knew the route to the hotel. We had a really nice room with, once again, a corgeous view. Those hotel sheets and fluffy beds were so heavenly! 

Even though I was so tired from everything, we headed to the city to walk around a little bit. Our hotel was close to the Main River, and the surrounding were beautiful with the autumn leaves on the ground. I wasn't really up for shopping, but we walked trough a few stores trying to find something for father's day. And once again, I tried my luck in one store to find the Alexander Wang bag.. No luck for me this time either! The city area of Frankfurt was kind of odd - there were some old building with the traditional german design but then again a lot of new, modern high-rise buildings. In the evening we had a nice dinner at a restaurant on the other side of the river. The place was called 36 grad and I must say, it was a really pleasant experience. It looked very youthful in a good way, the menu was awesome and the decorations of the place were fab! I wish I had more pics from there, but it was so dark that it was practically impossible to take good pics. The restaurant was full the whole evening and the atmosphere was relaxed yet fancy, so a great location for a dinner or get together with friends.

mamma <3

As I arrived to Frankfurt on Friday and we had basically seen the "important" things in there already during the first day, on Saturday we decided to do a little day trip to a city near called Heidelberg. Mom had got some recommendations on visiting there and I also had one extra day in my InterRail ticket so it was perfect. We took breakfast with us from a cafe at the Chinese block and took a train there.

In Heidelberg we headed straight to the old town, as that is basically the only thing worth seeing I guess. And it was the cutest place. The old town area was quite big so it took a while to walk around it. There was so much to see, so many cute buildings, stores and cafes. The best part of the day however was the castle. Located uphill from the city, there was this gorgeous castle with the most amazing view. There were even people fencing in the yard of one of the buildings, haha.

Across the river there would have been some sort of a philosophy path, but we decided not to go there after all. We did some shopping, tried to find souvenirs and had sushi for lunch. After wandering around enough we literally run to catch the train -which was late of course. 

The next day was time to say farewell to mummy. We went for a morning walk by the river, checked out and headed to the train station. I felt so sad to leave her again for another two months and even writing this makes me miss her and all my family so much.. But I was also happy to start my travel back to Groningen, even though it was a long one. I had my backpack full of finish treats(Pätkiksiä, joulusuklaata, Marianneja...) also, so that comforted me a little ;-)

Oh yeah, and there was a marathon in Frankfurt that Sunday so the station was filled with runners getting ready and loading their carbs :-D

Exploring Germany: Bamberg

From Berlin I had to somehow get to other side of Germany, to Frankfurt. I had made plans to meet up with my mom in Frankfurt, that was one of the reasons I even chose to go to Germany. As I looked up the train connections between those two cities, it did not look promising at all. All connections included at least 2 or 3 changes and the traveling time did not look too alluring either.. So I decided to stay somewhere in-between for one night and divide the transfer into two legs. After few options I ended up going to Bamberg for one night.

Welcome to Bamberg!

Hotel room view

One of my friends from here knew the town and said I would love it, and actually later on it turned out that another friend of mine actually studies there! So I had some expectations towards the city. Right from the train station I knew those expectations would be fulfilled. During my walk to the city and my hotel, I could not keep looking around with my mouth probably open in amazement. It is an old town, so everywhere you look you can see old buildings in pale pink, baby blue, white.. When approaching the city, I had to cross a river and the view from that bridge over to the city in a starting afternoon sunset was just beautiful. Oh yeah, and even the train ride to there was epic, such beautiful views with all the mountains and valleys..(or is it just Holland which makes me see hills as magnificent..) What a pity the battery from my camera died in Berlin so I only have pictures taken with my iPhone.

There weren't that many places available for accommodation, but I decided to splurge a little and reserved a room from Hotel Central. From pictures it looked really nice, but I thought the price was a little over the top considering the timing etc. But when I got there, I was happy to pay the 69€. The room looked newly renovated and my view was real nice. The hotel was also very quiet and the price included a fairly good breakfast.

I arrived there somewhat later in the afternoon as the train ride took me 4,5 hours. I got a map from the reception and went to explore the city. I heard that the old town part of the city was really nice. But to me, the whole city center looked like an old town, in a really good way I mean! So many pretty houses and somehow the atmosphere there was just so different from anywhere else. The old town was located in a hill. At 18:00 suddenly all the churches started to ring their bells, and let me tell you it wasn't just two bells but more like 100. This town probably had one church per each inhabitant. After recovering from that shock, I climbed up to the highest point(that I could reach without going to people yards at least) and the view from up there was amazing. Sun setting and a nice brisk autumn weather redden my cheeks.. 

On my way down from the old town, I went trough a garden of this big church. There were signs but they were in weird german so I am not sure what they said, but I assumed that it was allowed to use the path. When I got down almost to the road I was heading to, there was this super scary shack between me and the road. There was no way of going around it so I just had to go trough. The door was open, but inside it was totally dark. You can imagine me all alone with my vivid imagination in an old church's  garden in Germany.. I was pretty scared. But luckily I survived, but it took a few minutes for my heart rate to recover. Now that I think about it, it seems silly but oh well... :-)

After this interesting experience, I tried to find this one beer I was told to bring from Bamber - apparently the best beer in the world or something.. But somehow, I could not find it from any store. I had a nice dinner and went to bed quite early. The week had certainly taken the toll out of me and I was super excited to see my mum the next day!

The next day, I continued my journey early in the morning, straight from breakfast headed to the train station and off to Frankfurt. From the smallest shop in Bamberg, at the station I even found the beer I was looking for. A nice start for the day!

Exploring Germany: Berlin

For Berlin I had some big expectations. I had heard zoo many good things about the city, the atmosphere and everything you can do there. I even dedicated basically three days of my trip for the city, so I stayed there for two nights. I arrived there on Tuesday afternoon after my train being late and also not finding my seat on the train(it turned out the carriage I was supposed to be in, did not even exist??). Once again, I headed over to the tourist information where I met the most rude customer service ever. Eventually I manage to get a city map and some flyers on what to do. I also bought a subway ticket that I did not know how to use. I was planning on taking the underground to my hostel, but surprise surprise the one line that I was supposed to use was out of order. Tired and frustrated I went to find wifi and navigated myself there. On the way I also saw some parts of the city so it was a nice walk, even though my bag was getting to get kind of heavy from my shoppings. But hey, I am a gutsy Finn what couldn't I do?

walking and sightseeing

Finally checked in to the Hostel, Hotel M68 (45€ per night) which was pretty good from what I was expecting. It was located in a very nice place, right next to some museum and near to checkpoint charlie and other sightseeing places in the southern part of the city center. My room was also suuper spacious so I was happy with that, even though I had to share the bathroom and toilet.

When I had settled in, it was getting kind of late and I decided to hit the town for a little evening walk and maybe plan some things for the next day like what should I do and see. I walked to the Dom, found a 24/7 supermarket, bought some food and then walked back. It was Tuesday night, so there was not so many people out. Also I noticed that half of the city was under construction? When returning back to the hostel I realized that my room's window was an old display window, good thing it was not located in a red light district :-D

my window on the right (second floor)

The next day I slept in as I was already pretty tired from all the traveling and endless walking, so I had tons of energy for the upcoming day. First I wanted to get some breakfast and managed to find a cute little cafe. Then I headed over to checkpoint charlie, my first tourist-sightseeing place of the day. When I was doing some research on what to see in Berlin, it seemed that everything was kind of separated from each other all around the city so I figured it would be most reasonable to buy a ticket for a hop-on-hop-off sightseeing bus, and so I did (that cute ticket seller might have helped the situation a little bit - i bet that is their trick to maximize revenue, only hire cute guys ;-). In the end it paid off quite well I think. I saw the biggest "must-see" places without having to spent hours on just getting from one place to another by walking too much as that I had done a lot already. 

Being a full-on-tourist, and not feeling sorry about it!

The bus took me to another "center" in the western part of Berlin, where the biggest department store KaDeWe and other great shopping places were. I don't know if I had even went there without the sightseeing bus. On the bus there was a loudspeaker system telling some interesting facts about the landmarks too. 

A little Häagen-Dazs moment

Basically I spent the whole day sightseeing and walking around randomly, while enjoying the local treats of course. I also went to the Dali-museum/exhibition and after that enjoyed a 360' view platform at Panoramapunkt where I witnessed the amazing view over Berlin and a gorgeous sunset, combined with an experience of the fastest elevator in Europe(8,5m/s). Later I decided to try out my underground ticket and did a little subway-travelling. In my "home" station, I found this little food booth that sold some kind of wraps in the style of Subway. You could choose your fillings and sauces etc. And let me tell ya - it was yummy stuff for four euros!

The next day(Thursday) I had plans to leave early for my next destination, but the connection weren't that great. So I dropped off my bag to the train station, bought a seat ticket for an afternoon train and strolled around the city for a little while. In the northern part of the city there is this place called Hackescher Markt where you can find all sorts of shops, cafes and art places. Previous night I spotted the cutest little vegan cafe called Gün-Ohr and I had to return there. They sold the yummiest cupcakes and for sure the best vegan candy I have ever tasted! There was also a market sale thingy going on in the neighborhood and amazingly good smelling food for sale. I lost track of time while walking around so in the end I was kind of in a hurry to catch my train(which, of course, ended up being 15 minutes late). At the train station I also got lost and forgot where I left my bags, as there were luggage holds in every floor in two places.

Ready for the next destination!

Healthy breakfast

Preparing myself for the 4,5 hour train ride

Just a normal H&M??

Some ideas for overall badges(Finnish student thing)

Happily I made it to my train and it was time to say goodbye to Berlin. 

As a summary I have to say that Berlin was not that great that I had imagined. Maybe I would have to go there with someone who knows the town better to really see some authentic places rather than the tourist ones. Now I basically just saw a lot of tourists and the town it self did not seem that exciting. I will probably in some point give Berlin another shot, but for now I am ready to explore other places.

Exploring Germany: Bremen

Finally off to my report from Germany. I have been super lazy stressed with school and all other things that my little blog has severely taken all the damage from that. Anyways, now I am back again hopefully with a little more realtime posts and stories. From Instagram you can find my silly little life in pictures with the most up-to-date goings and comings.

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My first city where I headed was Bremen. It was kind of a natural choice to make, as my InterRail ticket was only valid in Germany and I knew that there was a few hour bus connection from Groningen to Bremen. So I took an early morning bus for 9 euros. And by early morning, I really mean early. On my way to the train station I saw some people returning their homes, assuming coming from a nice night out haha.

Bremen was really nice, quite a small city as I was expecting. The city center area was really nice, filled with old beautiful buildings and a super new looking tram, quite a contrast must say. At that time there was also some market or celebration going on and food stands etc. were about to be built. For a couple of hours I just strolled around the city center with the tourist map I got from the train station. It was nice to see the city, as it is one of our choices in VAMK to choose as an exchange city. Small but must be very atmospheric.

After enjoying a local doughnut from a food booth for breakfast and taking more than enough pictures, I continued my journey by taking a train to Hamburg.