I took a train from Berlin to Bad Schandau, where I disembarked and caught a ferry from the train station on one side of the river to the downtown on the other. Yes – I took a ferry as a normal link in the public transportation network! Sometimes I really love Germany.
There, I stayed in a youth hostel in a tiny, tiny village outside of Bad Schandau. During the days, I hiked in the intriguing landscape around there (pictures below) and in the evenings I caught up on a ton of reading, writing and sleep. Man, I should do this more often.
When I checked out of the hostel the last morning, the friendly older guy at the reception asked where I was headed next and I rather effusively told him I was going to Děčín, the closest city in the Czech Republic, which is just 15 minutes away by train – because how could I not, when it's right there??
(Some people climb mountains "because they're there." Apparently I go to other countries because they're there.)
I've lived in Europe a while now, but I don't think I'll ever get over how fantastic it is to be able to just pop over the border into another country for the day or even the afternoon.
I don't think the hostel guy quite got the appeal, though, seeing as he lives 15 minutes away from the Czech Republic all the time. Yeah, I go over there to go shopping, he said. At Tesco, for vegetables and stuff.
Ah yes, border-hopping shoppers are everywhere in Europe.
As for me, I hadn't been to the Czech Republic since my one and only trip there when I was 19, so I was seriously excited. And that excitement approximately quadrupled when I discovered I would be traveling there on the cutest little old single-car train! (Again, see pictures below.)
Border crossing buildings, former checkpoints (rendered obsolete by the Schengen Agreement that opened many of Europe's internal borders), tax-free shops with big signs, Czech gas station, roadside currency exchange place, stalls selling tourist bric-a-brac... And all this seen while I was still in Germany, because for a tiny stretch the border jogs and follows the river, so I was in a train traveling along one bank of the river, still in Germany, but looking across at the road along the other side of the river, which was already in the Czech Republic.
I said "Děkuji" (dyeh-KOO-yeh, "thank you") when I got off the train, and the nice Czech conductor smiled and said something I didn't understand in the least, but presumably meant "You're welcome." (Or maybe it meant, "Please, tourist, don't even try." But at least he smiled when he said it!)
I spent the afternoon walking in the woods outside of town (saying "dobrý den" to the people I passed and getting the same in response, fantastic!) then checking out a bit of Děčín's castle and downtown. Then, when I was too cold to stand it anymore, I repaired to a café to catch up on my travel journal and drink very strong Czech beer.
I arrived back at the station to find that the train did not go when I thought it did, and since it's winter and the days are very short, it was already dark out, in a not extremely populated neighborhood, so I was pretty much stuck in the station until the next train.
I looked around, eying the slightly tough-looking guys hanging around, contemplating the possibility of buying a coffee to have an excuse to sit down at some seats by a bakery inside the semi-cold of the station building – but then I would have to sit down near the slightly tough guys, since that's where the seats were. Luckily...
...there was also a restaurant in the train station. I pulled the door open cautiously, not even sure if it was open, and inside found a different world: an explosion of Christmas decorations, music blasting, the staff all young and laughing and seeming to be having a riotously good time back in the kitchen. I bought coffee (and then also tea, when the train was late arriving) with my leftover Czech change and spent a surprisingly pleasant couple hours, considering that I was killing time in the train station. And thinking, in Germany, it wouldn't be this pleasant. In another country, it might be pleasant, but it wouldn't be this cheap. Or laidback.
Then I got my full moon walk after all (it had been cloudy the night before, when I was out in the middle of the countryside and it ought to have been perfect for full moon viewing), strolling up and down the platform, waiting for the train. As I wandered back and forth, I sang Marketa Irglova songs to myself because she's the only Czech singer I really know, and I'm kind of a dork like that.
So. In summary, not only did I get to do some wonderful hiking in two different countries, I also devoured nearly all of a 400-page novel, did a bunch of my own writing and even caught up on sleep, because really what else is there to do at a hostel in the middle of nowhere, after the sun sets at 4:30 p.m.?
All signs suggest I should do this more often.
Pictures! Click on the image to go to the album.
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| Sächsische Schweiz |
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