My oh my what a busy couple days it has been. Since I missed out on all the turkey we ventured from Vienna to Munich and now we are currently in Zurich. In the span of less than a week we managed to visit not one, not two but three castles/palaces.
Our first palace being Schobrunn palace which was described in the previous blog. With the extravagance and elegance of the place you couldn't help be envious of the people who got to live there. It is said to be a smaller Versailles, something I will get to actually compare as we are going to Versailles in late November. I can't understand how it could be a smaller Versailles considering it had 40 rooms we were allowed to see and who knows how many more we weren't. It would be the absolute best place to play what I could imagine would be the longest game of hide and seek.
From Vienna we went to Munich where we didn't get much chance to actually explore the city itself as we went on two separate day trips. The first day trip followed the castle path of king Ludwig the second. If there was ever a man over compensating for something it was Ludwig. We went to his first castle where he spent the most of his time: Linderhof castle. This castle was for lack of a better word: gaudy. To give some context this "castle" was in fact not really a castle, it was small but inside made up for it. Some of the highlights of this place include: 300 porcelain vases, two porcelain mirror frames that framed a mirror taller than two of me, a table that dropped - you know to avoid Ludwig to have to engage with his servants - 5-6 kilograms of gold leaf plastered on wooden carvings throughout the entire place and the most extravagant piece: an ivory chandelier from India. You leave the castle speechless trying to comprehend and put comparisons to the things you've seen but there are none.
A quick drive led us to the best place in the world: Neuschwanstein Castle, Ludwig's second castle. This castle was downplayed significantly but where it didn't have the extravagance of Linderhof it made up for it in size. This castle was exactly that: a castle. It was the castle that inspired Sleeping Beauty's castle and was massive. The inside of the castle was a dedication to the opera composer and musician: Richard Wagner. Now Ludwig made sure that all the rooms were a dedication to different operas created by Wagner with beautiful paintings surrounding all the walls within the third and fourth floor of the castle. Ludwig died before the completion of the castle so as a result only the third and fourth floors were completed. Either way it is a beautiful castle rightly contributing to Ludwig's nickname: the fairytale king. It was a one of those days that you know you'll never forget.
I feel that my patience is running thin with the people around me. I have never been an overly social person and often considered snobby or not cool by some. The reality of the situation being that I have never mastered the art of subtlety with my dislike often plastered on my face.
The behaviours of people that have left me banging my head on the wall include: roommates in multibed dorms having little consideration to the fact they are sharing a room with other people. We had a man who thought it was okay to slam the bathroom door in the middle of the night multiple times and my anger boiling over to the point where I was snapping my fingers at him in the dark whisper-yelling at him to not slam the door. Another roommate thought it was necessary to constantly close the window in the stuffy room, she had pants and a sweater on as she slept. I get it she was cold but keep your overly dressed self under the blankets well the rest of us are barely covering up due to the heat desperate for the coolness of the opened window. She also was the roommate who would knock on the wall of the man who snored too loud instead of ignoring it like the rest of us. If you are going to knock might as well touch buddy, it was dark like he would know who touched him in the night just avoid eye contact in the morning. Finally the woman on our day trip who thought it was a good idea to walk away from our bus to the bathroom after already being 5 minutes and trying to take sneaky pictures with her phone in the places it wasn't allowed. The angle in which she was taking them I couldn't understand the point, I could picture her conversation now: if you squint and turn your head to the right you could see the painting of Jesus. The logic of some.
There are a lot of times where we try to blend in but our mannerisms make us obvious tourists. If you don't want to stand out as a tourist I would suggest against these few things: 1. large amounts of PDA. My travel partner and I have always been that couple that people often throw looks of disgust to unable to be proper in the display of our affections. What can I say our love is so strong. Eww, jokes. Another tip: avoid playing games. My travel partner can often be seen playing games of our own creation including a game where we stand behind a large object and guess what side the other is going to exit from, another a game of who can tackle hug the other the hardest often leaving people assuming we are abusing one another. My favourite standby game being the death drop. This involves me throwing myself at him and dropping dead weight in hopes he would catch me. 3. Don't try and talk to the animals. I've always been that person who pays more attention to your pet more than you and that is something that doesn't happen often here. The dogs are indifferent to my attempts of affection and the ducks only coming to me for the chance of food not my calling quacks. Also avoid using phrases like: let's get our day started. Apparently no one in Europe feels the need to have phrases for life but I like my phrases: respect is key, bad life choices and my new favourite to the annoyance of my travel partner: let's get our day started. Finally do not wave your hands obnoxiously to avoid the cigarette smoke. Europe has yet to join Canada in the anti smoking campaign with children who look like they belong in junior high smoking. So by waving your hands to avoid inhaling secondhand smoke people know you don't belong here.
Saturday we are off to Venice, the city of the canals. I am excited about this, I enjoyed Venice before even though it smelled terrible. One thing i am hoping for is that there is enough pasta to fill up my travel partner to avoid a subway conversation. If I have to eat one more sub I swear...
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