When deciding to do this slow, land travel route I knew I’d have to get used to long bus journeys. I got used to them very quickly, and now I’m finding a way to even enjoy them. This is how I managed to do that for my journey from Ljubljana, Slovenia to Ulcinj, Montenegro (total bus time: 18 hours, total travel time: 30 hours).

I first got the local bus from my workaway host into Ljubljana. I left myself a couple hours in Ljubljana to run some errands, buy a nice lunch for the bus and relax with a coffee. The first bus journey was only 2.5 hours to Zagreb. I ate my egg and kidney bean salad whilst listening to some music and watching the scenery. I tried not to nap to save my sleepiness for later, but I honestly can’t help myself on a bus so I had a little one.

Stop 1: Zagreb

Once in Zagreb I saw that the luggage storage at the bus station was only £2.50 so decided to leave my bag there for the 4 hours I had before my next bus. I walked into the centre and found the old town, seeing the main sights of the Cathedral and the church with the cool roof. I then went into the Museum of Broken Relationships - somewhere I’d read about online ages ago and thought it sounded cool. It was a really good way to spend some time. The museum was filled with possessions that had been donated, each with a little story about them. All around the theme of broken relationships. Mostly romantic relationships, but others included lost boobs after breast cancer, and parental relationships. I took photos of my favourite stories, and my most favourite was the skydiving one. I walked down some steps into the city centre and stopped at a burger place for dinner. I managed to wash my face in the sink in the restaurant bathroom (step one of my skincare routine done). I walked back to the bus stop via the shop, where I bought some milka. I finished off my skincare in the bus station and got on the 9 hour overnight bus to Dubrovnik.

I started this bus journey by watching some netflix and eating the chocolate. When I felt sufficiently tired I turned in for the night, putting on my eye mask and using my sleeping bag as a pillow. Luckily the seat next to me was free so I was able to sort of lie down. I slept fairly well, but never deeply. Croatia is split by Bosnia, so we had to cross the Bosnian border and then back over the Croatian one. I’ve not had to cross a border half asleep before but it all went smoothly. It was around 6am at this point, and I’d missed watching the sunset (damn my too effective eye mask). We arrived into Dubrovnik an hour later.

Stop 2: Dubrovnik

I had 4 hours before the next bus, and a few hours until the people I was meeting here would be awake and ready. I felt like a shower would be wonderful so decided to walk to the closest beach for a morning swim, and perhaps a shower if there was one. The walk was 30 minutes which would usually be a breeze, but was slightly less so in the already too hot temperatures and with my big backpack on. It was also mostly uphill, which I knew wasn’t a good sign seeing as I would eventually have to go back down to sea level… As expected, there were a lot of steps to get down to the beach. Once there I was unbelievably sweaty and the water looked so inviting. I chucked my bag down in the shade, found my bikini and changed into it, rushing into the sea. It was my first sea swim of the trip. I swam for a while, stretching my body after a night uncomfortably laid on bus seats and just enjoying cooling off. Wonderfully there was a shower, so I used the tiniest bit of shower gel to freshen up and even got to use my face wash. I brushed my teeth and felt very refreshed. I ate an apple for breakfast whilst I dried off. I got changed into shorts, repacked my bag, attached my wet bikini to the outside using my carabiner and headed to find Will and Paul (the people I was meeting) at a cafe. I was very happy to see them again. I enjoyed an iced coffee once there and then we went to the bus station. The bus was 1.5 hours late, and took much longer than expected to get to Ulcinj. The border crossing into Montenegro took a while, and we were pulled over by the police I think for some time. But travelling with other people meant I wasn’t too worried about the delays, and was just happy to be with them. Eventually we got to Ulcinj bus station, and Paul’s family friend picked us up to take us to where we were staying, and I at last reached my destination.

So the travelling isn’t always without hiccups or delays, but that isn’t a reason to stress or not enjoy it. I’m learning to make the most out of the journeys, and I really enjoyed this one. But yes, a little insight into the logistics of not flying!

After a hectic two weeks of city hopping and party hostels I was very ready to chill out for a bit. I needed to recharge. Especially as I had lost my voice and come down with a cough. I had organised (via workaway of course) to stay with a family in Slovenia for two weeks. And now I’m leaving I can see how much of a success it was - I feel completely refreshed and re-energised. I truly loved my time there. My work was more like chores than proper work, I would muck out the horses throughout the day and muck out their pasture in the evening. I would walk the dog twice a day. I would play with the youngest child while the older two were at school. The rest of my day would be filled with sunbathing, reading, blog writing and calling friends to catch up. It was the most wonderful way to recharge.

I felt so calm there, and really part of the family. Jolene, the youngest (she’s 4), was such a crazy kid and we had a lot of fun together. She didn’t speak any english, although I’m certain she understood a lot of what I said to her, so it was fun trying to communicate and play games with no verbal communication. We still managed to create huge playmobil worlds together, even if I was told off for doing stuff wrong a lot… I would use my phone to find pictures of animals for us to make with playdoh (please see my beautiful otter below). We were both very sad to say goodbye to each other.

The family are vegan, so the food was a welcomed change to the heavy meat diet of Czechoslovakia cuisine! Although it was a lot more bread heavy than I imagined. All very delicious though, and I feel full of vitamins once more.

One evening the family took me to a “village party”. I was imagining a small fete. It was more like a mini festival or even a rave. The music began with traditional Slovenian and Croatian songs, and ended with rave music, with the flashing lights to match. It was a fun evening, and reminded me of the weirfest back in Porlock.

On my day off I wanted to visit Velika Planina. It seemed tricky to do with just public transport and I saw that two girls I’d met in Bratislava were also in Slovenia so I asked them if they were planning on going, and if they’d worked out a way to do it. Turns out they were planning to visit the same day I was, and had a car with a spare seat which they kindly offered! So I ended up driving over and visiting with four dutch students which was lovely. Our trip had a rocky start however, when we went to their parked car in Ljubljana we discovered that someone had locked the parking space with a chain and padlock, meaning we couldn’t get the car out. They’d been told it was okay to park there by the guy whose space it apparently was, so we’re not sure why it was locked! We went to find help and a very helpful Slovenian guy came to our rescue. He found the number for owner of the neighbouring car and rang it. This guy was equally helpful and came straight away to move his car, allowing us to escape through his space. I’d heard that Slovenians were really lovely people, and this interaction confirms that (with the exception of whoever locked the space to begin with…). We finally headed off on the 1 hour drive to the cable car. After a short cable car ride we caught a chair lift up to the summit. This was really fun, great views and very relaxing. Once at the top we wandered through the herdsman huts and village. The cows were roaming around free, with the calfs looking extra cute. We stopped at one of the huts where the man sold cheese he’d made from fresh milk from his cows. I bought a rosemary one that had been made that morning. It was so creamy and soft and delicious. Once we’d explored the whole village we caught the chairlift and then the cable car back down. The whole place was really beautiful and strange. It wasn’t busy at all, but it’s somewhere I’d definitely recommend visiting. The mountain views were insane, the village was really cool, and the whole experience was something a bit different. The guys dropped me off in Kamnik on their way back to Budapest. I was going to catch the bus straight to Ljubljana but spotted a cool looking church on the hill and decided to climb that first. I’m glad I did - the actual building and the views were well worth it. I eventually caught the bus to Ljubljana and ambled my way to a pizza restaurant on the side of the river. I sat and ate dinner alone - the first time since Paris! I listened to music and just soaked up the city - the sun was setting and hitting the buildings on the other side of the river so perfectly. I felt very warm and happy and full. After I’d paid I walked along the river to the main square, sitting on the statue that was slightly off-centre and in the direct path of the setting sun. A man was playing an accordion. I once again soaked up this beautiful city, this time eating some of the very melted chocolate biscuits I’d bought earlier.

My time here was restful and everyday ended with a beautiful sunset. I left a few days early because of a change of plans, but will be returning to Slovenia for another week and a bit soon. So expect more Slovenia content!

I’ve been to Budapest before, four years before with some friends from uni. This meant I didn’t feel like I needed to see anything, as I’d already done the main sites, and was more looking forward to socialising with the people from Prague again. I actually bumped into Will on the street when I was walking from the bus to the hostel - Europe can really feel like a small place sometimes!

I like Budapest, but it’s nothing too special. The streets aren’t so beautiful, it has it’s nice buildings but they aren’t every building like in Prague. That being said, the baths are something pretty special. I went to the baths with some friends, and we bumped into more people from the hostel there. We had a delightful few hours swimming and just enjoying the sun. Less delightful is the fact we couldn’t find anywhere to buy a metro ticket on the way there, so took the risk to ride without one. When we got off at our station we were stopped by ticket men and made to pay a fine, oops. Luckily it was only £17, but beware that there are a lot of people checking metro tickets in Budapest! We visited the Fisherman’s Bastion, and it was as pretty as I remember. The white bricks against the blue sky were just beautiful. We also went to a ruin bar, so managed to tick off all the main attractions again. The rest of my few days was spent wandering around with people, happening upon some traditional dancing, playing cards, reading my book, catching up on my diary entries, and taking a moment of stillness over a morning coffee. Oh and frantically searching for insect bite cream as I’d been eaten alive at the castle in Bratislava, and the first two days were public holidays so all of the pharmacies were closed. I’d also run out of my face spf, which is even more dramatic if you’re into skincare (I am). On our last night we went out for traditional Hungarian food to a restaurant chosen by someone else from the hostel. When we arrived I realised it was a restaurant that I’d been to four years earlier on my last visit!

I encouraged another British guy who was also going to Ljubljana next to get the flixbus rather than the train, as it was cheaper and quicker. We were catching the same one so I somehow became responsible for getting us both to the station. We got there with plenty of time. I checked the ticket for the platform information and saw with a sinking feeling that the bus was going from an entirely different station. Oops. I blame some sad goodbyes that morning for my slip-up. I raced across Budapest to the correct station, with the poor British guy in tow, and we made it with 10 minutes to spare, plenty of time!

Items I’ve lost so far

For a pinch of reality I thought I’d share the items I’ve already managed to lose:

• My favourite lip balm (luckily I have 5 alternatives).
• My travel washing line. I used it once to dry my pants after a desperate sink wash and just left it hung up at the hostel.
• The bag for my travel towel. Left it at the baths in Budapest, not sure what distracted me here.
• Pack of cards. No idea where these went, disappeared from my hostel bed.
• Trainers. Left these at a hostel in Bratislava when I moved to a new hostel. Luckily I could go back and get them when I realised, so not fully lost!

After my discussions with Stanley in Brno, I was expecting Bratislava to feel quite poor and shabby. As I got off the bus into a super modern shopping mall this was not what I was met with. I even saw a robot barista making coffees. I met up with Will from Prague and we explored Bratislava together that afternoon and evening. We wandered around the old town, it felt more open than Prague, a lot quieter and a lot smaller. Perhaps a little bit prettier, but that might have been the better weather. We crossed the Danube river, walked through an averagely nice park where I realised how useless my biology degree really is when Will had to teach me that the pretty flowers in the park were in fact roses. We crossed back over an adjacent bridge and saw the blue church. It’s probably the most famous site in Bratislava, and it really was beautiful. It made me excited to see more blue churches in Turkey and further east. This one was originally orange, but when an inside wall was painted blue the Priests liked it so much they ordered the whole church to be painted the same colour. I bet the painter cursed them all.

That night I was staying at the Wild Elephants hostel, one I’d heard a lot about as a bit of a crazy place. My room was the worst dorm room I’ve ever seen, but the pub crawl was cool. Some others from Prague were also staying there so that made it even more fun.

The next day I walked up to the castle with the people from Prague. The view was pretty good but we couldn’t go into the castle because there was some political conference going on. We spent the afternoon on a Communist walking tour which was extremely interesting. I really love communist Russian history after studying it during my A levels (not an Alex Cleere Falklands level obsession, but I do listen to a lot of Russian history podcasts), so I thoroughly enjoyed it. One titbit is the design of the large square and fountain in the communist city centre (it isn’t the city centre anymore). It was designed with the purpose of looking pretty in pictures for propaganda, but not really being suitable for use and especially not for use as a place to protest. For example, mounds of grass were included to prevent formation of crowds, and benches were left as unpainted metal to make them too hot to sit on in the summer, and too cold in the winter (your skin would literally freeze to it). There’s also the famous UFO soviet bridge of course, which Will is modeling beautifully.

On my last full day, Greg and I went to Devlin Castle which is just a short bus ride away. The castle was only ruins but had a great view of the Danube. As we wondered back down the hill we saw some medieval stands so went to explore. We stumbled across a medieval re-enactment festival sort of thing. There were knights and princesses and horses and a jousting set up. We sat down, I was excited to see some real life jousting! The games began and it turns out it wasn’t real jousting, but different competitions to pick up hoops with jousting poles whilst on horseback, or pop balloons, or smash fruit with swords. I felt silly for thinking they would actually joust. But then they did! It was very exciting, and they really did smash into each other, their joust poles splintering and the losing knight very dramatically sliding off his horse to be helped by the peasants. It was really wonderful to watch, especially as we had no idea it was happening.

Once we got back to the city we showered and wore our smartest clothes as we were going to the opera. It was a small opera production, in the rehearsal space rather than the main stage. We had no idea what was going on, it was all in Slovakian (or perhaps german?) and seemed strange anyway. But the singing was wonderful to listen to, and it was a very pleasant 1.5 hours. Letting the strange language wash over us like a pretty painting. I’m not sure I’ll go out of my way to go to another opera though, I’m glad this one was only 12 EUR. As we walked back the skies opened and it poured with rain.

Beautiful Bratislava

Bratislava really surprisied me. It was peaceful, but had a great nightlife. It was cheap (I paid 3.20 EUR for 2 pints of beer), but it also had bougee brunch places. It had a beautiful old town sqaure and wonderfully ugly communist buildings. The communist walking tour was the best tour I’ve done so far. I loved walking around the town with friends from Prague. Devlin castle and the jousting were a delightful surprise. Because the city is much smaller than Prague, I do feel like I know it in the way I didn’t with Prague. I recommend Bratislava with my whole heart, for a slightly different European city break.

Prague

The City

I’ve been wanting to go to Prague for years now, so was very glad to pull up to the bus station on 29/05/22. My first impression wasn’t brilliant - I had to walk through a subway to leave the bus station and the smell was an overpowering aroma of piss. But my Prague experience only went up from there. I arrived in the evening, checked into my hostel and joined in with the drinking games and night out planned. The club we ended up in was maybe my favourite ever. It was like a maze, with lots of small rooms and levels and winding corridors. Some of the rooms had live music, others DJs. You got given a card that had your entrance fee money on it to spend inside. You could buy drinks but also pizza, and seeing as I hadn’t had any dinner I made full use of this. Despite the late night, I headed out on a walking tour the next morning along with some others from the hostel. We learnt all about the buildings in the old town, the history of the Czech Republic and about the lives of the jewish population in the jewish quarter. The next day I walked around the sights once more, but this time alone so I could actually take them in. It was even more enjoyable as I now knew all about the buildings I was looking at. Perhaps a walking tour and then a wander around is the way to do it? The streets of Prague are really something, they remind me of the towns in children’s books. The buildings are beautiful, the narrow streets are filled with atmosphere and history, and it’s small enough to amble around comfortably but big enough to get a little lost. Something that I really fell in love with was the soviet style trams. They looked so cool and really added to the overall vibe of the city. I hope they don’t get upgraded anytime soon.

Later I walked up to the castle, enjoying the view over Prague a lot more than the steps up. I bumped into some friends from the hostel at the entrance and we looked around together. It was a bit strange. The actual castle is more of a palace in my opinion, and ‘Prague Castle’ includes a whole square of buildings containing a cathedral, a crypt, a lane of old houses and more. The cathedral had beautiful stained glass windows, but beyond that I was a little underwhelmed. Luckily the tickets were only £4 so perhaps I just had too high expectations.

I spent my last morning in Prague drinking a coffee in the main square and writing some postcards. My quiet reflection was ruined by a loud siren calling out. It turns out it was a siren drill to check the system works. The siren calls out across all of the Czech Republic and is used to alert the population of an invasion or war. The drill happens on the first Wednesday of each month, although it’s been paused for the last few months as to not scare the Ukrainian refugees in the country. It’s been eye-opening realising how much of an impact war has on countries, even if they have been at peace for decades. From Eva’s concern over Ukraine; the general concern and memory in Prague over Ukraine (the Soviet Union had re-asserted it’s occupation in Prague in 1969 after the country made moves towards a more people-friendly communism); the existence of the sirens; and also meeting a guy in the hostel from Crimea who has fled to avoid joining the Russian army. It makes me realise how lucky I am to be born in a war-free country, something I’ve never really considered before.

An interesting interaction

Beyond the lovely people I met at the hostel, I had a few interactions with the locals of Prague. One was quite strange. A man stopped me to ask if I was his friend, apparently I look a lot like her. After I satisfied him that I was not his friend, he stayed and chatted for a while. He wasn’t particularly creepy, and I was stopped to eat my chimney cake on the bridge and didn’t particularly want to move, so I let him. He told me that he once asked his father if he was his biological father, and he had replied “I’m not sure to be honest, there were rumours your mother was sleeping with the sports teacher and we don’t look alike. But I’ve never really minded.”. I’d call it an overshare but it did amuse me whilst I ate my lunch. On the theme of how war touches people generations later, this man lived in Switzerland but spent all of his time in Prague as he loved it. When I asked him why he didn’t just move to Prague, he replied with a fear of war. He grew up in Romania and his grandfather fought in whatever war was raging there, and it clearly left a major impression on him.

Reality

I truly loved Prague, but I don’t feel like I got to see it in the depth I saw Munich. I instead spent a lot of my time exploring with other people rather than alone, going out every night and always being a little hungover/tired the next day. Whilst that was a lot of fun, and the people I met were amazing, you can’t have it all and I feel like I don’t know Prague as much as I would’ve liked to. Perhaps I should’ve spent longer there. Or perhaps I’ll just have to go back.

Brno

My original plan was to only do Prague in the Czech Republic, but on my last day in Switzerland another volunteer came and she lived in Brno. She recommended that I go and visit it, and to text her husband who would be there, to go out for dinner with him and their daughter. It was on the way to Bratislava anyway, so I thought why not. Brno (R and L can make a vowel sound in Czech, hence the weird spelling) was a nice little city. It used to be industrial with a lot of weapon factories (did you know the Czech Republic used to be the 7th largest arms producer in the world?) but these have now moved out of the city. I visited the castle in the evening, enjoying the heavy summer air as I walked through the park up the hill. The castle was lovely, I preferred it to the one in Prague. The dinner with Stanley and his daughter was wonderful, he’s travelled all over the world himself, including climbing mountains in Kazakhstan. I learnt a lot about life in the Czech Republic (such as the stuff about the siren drill) and about the Czechoslovakia division. I explored the old town centre before my bus the next day, and I spent the last of my Czech currency on the most delicious cherries I’ve ever eaten from the vegetable market.

The Czech part

Czech food is slightly better than what I ate in Munich, but still very pork and sausage heavy, and very very salty. I tried several traditional dishes, including the infamous pork knuckle. This was a huge joint of meat (my fist is for size in the photo). It had a chewy, salty skin and then an inch of soft fat, followed by ounces of tender meat. It was absolutely delicious. I did end up removing a lot of the fat however, there was no way I could eat all of it. Alas, even this proved too much meat for my stomach and I had my first (and hopefully last…) bout of sickness during the night. Not quite food poisoning, but it’s definitely going to make me cautious in the future to avoid actual food poisoning!

The dishes were always served with potato and bread dumplings, which I actually had eaten with Eva in Switzerland (Eva’s were better than the restaurants). I really like them, and you can make the potato ones with leftover mashed potato - would recommend.

After my first night in Prague I realised I couldn’t actually remember the last time I’d eaten a vegetable. None of the dishes here or in Munich came with any. Convinced that’s why I felt a bit run down and not the nights out, I bought a huge salad to have for dinner that evening. I actually did feel much better after - remember to eat healthily!

The other dish I tried was again pork, with both dumpling types and pickled cabbage with bacon. Also delicious. Incredibly salty. Luckily I had a beer to wash it down with. On the beer note, it is genuinely cheaper than water or soft drinks. A 0.5l glass of beer would set you back 45 CZK, which is around £1.60.

I gave in and got a chimney cake for lunch one day, they really are everywhere. Of course I know, like any seasoned traveller, that these are traditionally from Hungary and not Czechoslovakia, but here we are. It was pretty good. Unsurprisingly very sickly, but I did manage to finish it.

My absolute favourite thing I ate in Prague was a gingerbread man. I read a food travel blog on the bus ride over and saw that there was a famous traditional gingerbread shop, and as gingerbread is one of my favourite things I knew I had to stop by. It did not disappoint. I ate it on the bus to Brno. My only regret is not buying 10 more!

Little entry from Brno: I had the best coffee of the trip so far here. It was from a little cart in the main square, but the carts were all over the city (above is one outside the bus station). I paid 40 CZK (£1.38) for my macchiato and it was the smoothest, most delicious coffee I’ve had in a long time. I was also very tired. But the coffee was genuinely amazing.

The Slovak part

The day I went on a little day trip I went and bought a packed lunch. I bought Treska and bread rolls, a traditional thing to eat according to our tour guide. Treska means cod but it also means this mayo cod salad, and that’s actually its main meaning because of how popular it is. It’s 40% mayo. I think that definition of ‘salad’ explains Czeckoslovakian food well. It was a wet pate texture, that worked perfectly to dip bread into. It tasted fishy and like mayo, nothing unexpected there. Not sure I’d be able to eat it everyday, but it’s definitely a picnic staple.

Surprisingly, I also had the best banana bread I’ve had in a while in Bratislava. It was moist and perfectly spiced and was the perfect accompaniment to a coffee and relax on the main square.

I can’t not mention the traditional garlic soup and cheese dumplings I had one night in Bratislava. The soup was insanely garlicy, and had some cheese in the bottom which was a nice surprise. The cheese dumplings were surprisingly good. They were made of a soft dough with a salty cheese filling, smothered in more cheese, fresh herbs (dill and chives I think) and little bacon pieces. I’m not sure I could eat more than three though.

As I left my isolated workaway in Switzerland to do two weeks of hostel living whilst city hopping, I was anxious to meet other travellers and make some friends, and hoped that this would happen. I now realise that the hard bit isn’t making new friends, it’s saying goodbye to them when your travels inevitably take you in different directions.

I had fun in Munich with the girls I met at the hostel, but my first real experience of hostel friends was in Prague. Here I met many lovely people, including some especially wonderful ones - Greg (Canadian), Susie (Canadian), Drew (Australian) and Will (Australian). I ate every meal with at least one of them, I even cooked breakfast for Susie and Will (if you can call boiled eggs or beans on toast cooking). Susie and Greg (and two others, I must’ve really sold it) made the 10:30am walking tour with me after being out until 5am the night before, and we all survived until the end of the 3 hours despite becoming increasingly hungover. I enjoyed their company so much, and was very glad that when I said goodbye to each of them it wasn’t for very long. We all left at different times and for different places, but we all happened (and some convinced to change plans) to be staying at the same hostel again in Bratislava. Another round of dinner, night out and a walking tour - same people, different city. In Bratislava we lost our first person, Susie, and I was surprised at how sad the goodbye felt. I saw the rest in Budapest, and even extended my stay there an extra night to spend more time with them.

Making hostel friends for the short time you’re in one place is of course lovely, and it’s fun to do stuff with people, even if it’s just for that one activity. But it was even more lovely to spend time in several cities with the same people. Even if it meant that saying goodbye was a little bit harder to do. I can’t believe I only knew these people for 10 days, but I’m sure I’ll remember them for much, much longer. I wish all of them the best on their travels, and really hope to see them all again one day!

I arrived in Munich at a bit past 9 on Thursday evening. Feeling very ready to socialise I dropped my bag in my room, stopping briefly to chat to the one room mate that was there, a Canadian girl, who was also heading out, and immediately headed down to the hostel bar. As expected, it didn’t take long to make some friends! I sat and chatted with three girls at the bar, two more Canadians (but this time french Canadian) called Sophie and Amy, and a lady who was there on business from South Korea. After a few hours my room mate appeared, and so she and her friend from Munich joined. They were going out to a club and invited us along, with two finnish guys who had also joined us, and that’s how I ended up hearing Abba being sung with a german accent on mass. We walked back to the hostel together, with the sun having risen and the birds singing. The german boys we met thanked us for partying with them (imagine it in a german accent for the full experience) and making it the best night out they’d had. A bit of a contrast to my last two weeks…

After a little bit of a lie in I left to explore the city, following the amazing recommendations from Leo (thanks again!). The weather was once again wonderful, and honestly, the whole day was just beautiful. The pastry and coffee from the food market was delicious; the colours of the buildings were all my favourite tones (oranges and yellows); the atmosphere was energetic but also very calming. I was surprised at the huge number of churches. I listened to a travel podcast on Munich as I walked around, making it like a 4D podcast. My highlight was the Englischer Garten. A network of rivers flowing through it, the sun shining, people sprawled on the grass, some playing volleyball - it made me so happy. I ended up at a bridge where surfer’s surf the wave on the river. Suddenly all of the people I’d seen on the metro carrying surfboards made sense. That evening I met up with Sophie and Amy and we went to a biergarten. We enjoyed traditional bavarian food (currywurst for me) with 1 litre steins of beer.

This isn’t a fashion blog, but I felt like my outfit choice fitted in well with Munich fashion.

A much earlier start on Saturday saw me catching the train to Starnburg and then Possenhofen - towns to the South of Munich, on the edge of Lake Starnburg. Interesting historical bit about this lake, it’s home to a true crime mystery where the ex-King Ludwig II was found dead in the lake in suspicious circumstances whilst staying in an insane asylum there. I enjoyed a much warmer lake swim than in Switzerland and my lunch of two types of pretzels with hummus, and peaches. I caught the train up to Nymphenburg Palace. It was very grand, sat in the centre of beautiful gardens. I treated myself to an audio tour and spent the next 90 minutes learning an awful lot about Bavaria, its rulers (seemingly all called Maximillian) and the palace itself. I really love audio tours (if I could make a law it would be that all audioguides are free) and visiting historical places. I get tired of museums eventually, but visiting the actual places and learning about them is so much more interesting. My favourite titbit was the ‘Gallery of Beauties’ adorned with 36 female portraits, commissioned by King Ludwig I of ‘beautiful’ women of all social standing. Seemed pretty odd to me, and I wouldn’t like to think of what he was using the portraits for exactly. The diversity of their social standing (princess to a daughter of a blacksmith) was the only diversity by the way. They all looked pretty identical to me. I hope that if someone was so strange as to something similar today, that the collection would look very different. After I’d exhausted the audioguide I had a little wander around the gardens before heading back to the city centre. I got off the train in the old town as I fancied a bit more of a walk around. The evening sun was delicious and I saw yet more churches. I met up with Sophie and Amy again and we bought some beers and other interesting drinks from Lidl and walked to the park along the bank of the river Isar. It was gorgeous in the sunset. We got a hotdog and ate it with our beers, chatting about traditional Canadian sweets, Quebec politics, our days and how lucky we are to be travelling. We used the electric scooters to return to the hostel, which I realised is a great way to explore cities.

I was originally going to catch a morning bus to Prague on Sunday, but decided I wasn’t quite finished with Munich. I spent the morning wandering around the old town once more, shocked at how quiet it was and how everything really did close on a Sunday. I had a traditional breakfast dish of Weisswurst (was not a big fan) and climbed a church tower to happily observe the city from above. I caught a bus to Prague in the afternoon, after transitioning to rain mode to brave the storm that had appeared.

Munich exceeded my expectations hugely. It was beautiful and the german culture was very enjoyable. The food wasn’t my favourite… But I did really love the pretzels. The people I met were truly lovely, especially Sophie and Amy, and I wish them luck in Italy!

A traditional swiss house. Zoom out once and you see it’s sat amongst the trees and a beautiful garden. Zoom out further and you see the deer that roam in the field next to it, the sheep, the ducks, the geese and the chickens. Zoom out again and you see the hill it’s perched just below the brow of. Zoom out yet again and you see the farm that’s just up the dirt track from the house, and the village that’s around the corner. This is where I’ve lived for the past 2 weeks. Alone, with an 88 year old Czech lady called Eva. I’ve been on a workaway, which means I work for around 5 hours each day in exchange for free food and accommodation. It’s been a really interesting time, in a lot of ways.

The Work

The work I did was mostly dealing with the animals (cleaning, feeding and putting them away at night), and the garden (planting, weeding and mowing). I learnt a lot. It’s been a long time since I’d done any gardening, and I realised I do really enjoy planting seeds, watering them and watching them germinate and sprout. Transferring them from the little pot in the greenhouse to the soil in the vegetable garden. I also found my favourite gardening task - cutting down weeds. One morning Eva told me she’d like me to cut down the nettles in the deer enclosure and other places around the garden. I imagined this would be using a petrol strimmer or something. Of course not. It was using a scythe (a literal grim reaper scythe). Eva told me she had brought it with her when she moved from Prague in 1969, so it was definitely a lot older than I was. She showed me how to use it and it seemed very simple. I tried it myself on the nettles and it was indeed very simple. And very satisfying. And hard enough work that you felt good and like you’d done exercise, but not too hard that you got tired after a few hours. I really enjoyed it and decided that when I have a garden that requires a similar treatment, I’d get a scythe rather than a strimmer. I did, however, wake the next morning with blisters on my hands, which was a first for me. There were some jobs that I enjoyed infinitely less however, namely one involving the chickens. Please see the food post about chicken to read more… I also had my first near death experience on this workaway. If you asked me to predict when I’d be in a dangerous situation before I left I would not have guessed driving to pick up some stale bread in Switzerland, but there we are. It was a 30 minute drive to the bakery and Eva wanted me to find the directions. I used google maps and saw that there was a toll, I mentioned it to Eva and she said she didn’t know what it was, but we’ll see. We set off, Eva is not a very good driver, but she is 88 so that is to be expected. After about 15 minutes we see a sign for the autobahn, Eva exclaims that we mustn’t go on the autobahn as she hasn’t paid. I now realise that this is what the toll was obviously for, and Eva perhaps hadn’t understood what toll meant, but I did think to myself that this bit of information would’ve been good to know before. She asks me to find a different route, I can’t really explain to her that I can’t because I have no data, but then I remember I have maps.me downloaded for the area so I use this to find a route avoiding tolls. It takes us through the city of Bern, I think because we were already a bit in it ready to get on the autobahn. Eva wasn’t happy about this and her driving got even worse, we were clipping curbs with every corner, I had to keep a constant eye out for cyclists so I could shout a warning as she kept drifting across the lanes. It culminated when we almost crashed into 2 cars on a roundabout. I could see it happening so managed to wave my arms enough to make Eva stop and swerve to the side. I stayed very calm to help Eva who I could tell was not happy. Eventually we made it to the bakery. Nine huge sacks of stale bread (which I found out was for giving to the animals) loaded into the car and we made a slightly less stressful drive back. I stopped asking Eva for lifts after this, hence the switch to the electric bike! The opposite of death is of course life, which offers a perfect segway into perhaps my favourite thing about this week: the birth of a new lamb! I went to check on the sheep one morning and saw there was a new addition that had clearly just been born (I had to pull the rest of the gunk out of the ewe). I was the first person to see the new lamb, pretty cool!

The Food

The food I was rewarded with after the work was always delicious, and there was always a lot of it. We had some traditional swiss dishes: fondue, raclette (my favourite) and rosti. We also had some traditional czech dishes, all involving egg and potatoes and all surprisingly delicious. Eva also made cakes and jams for after lunch snacks. I’ve never been so aggressively encouraged to eat in my life. Every meal Eva would cook enough for, I’d say, 4 people, and insist that I finish it. And then insist I have cake afterwards. Luckily I was always quite hungry after working in the garden, but I still never finished what she prepared. One lovely thing was that the milk we drank came straight from the cows of the farm up the track. Nice, fresh, unpasteurised milk that I’d leave an empty canister on a hook outside the barn for, and collect it a few hours later, with it magically having been filled.

A little something different

One evening Eva and I went to a concert. It was a saxophone, a cello and an accordion playing in a local church not too far away. It was really wonderful - they played both traditional music and then more experimental pieces, using other parts of the instrument to make wave like sounds in one of the pieces. We both really enjoyed it and spoke about music on the way home.

The Reality

When I called a friend one evening and recalled some of the craziness, I realised how this fortnight has given me some pretty great stories to tell. And honestly, that’s why I’m travelling, to have some weird experiences and to have some fun stories to tell. To live an interesting life. These stories are likely to be the main memories from this experience that last the tests of time. But they are the lesser component of my two weeks. I spent this time mostly alone. I saw Eva for meals, and some of the people in the village every few days, but beyond that I worked alone, I relaxed in the evenings alone, I felt alone. I spent two weeks inside my own head, exasperated by the menial tasks I was often doing. For a lot of that time I also felt lonely. I still hadn’t settled into travelling again, and I was plagued by doubts. Maybe I shouldn’t have taken a year out? Maybe 6 months travelling would’ve been enough? Maybe I’d miss my friends and my family too much? Maybe my relationships with people at home would be weakened by me not being there for so long? Maybe I should be spending a year off doing something more productive for my career? Maybe I should be travelling quickly, staying only in hostels and socialising more? The doubts sat heavy in my stomach (probably another reason I could never finish the food Eva prepared!). But I would ask myself: do you want to go home? And my gut would scream no! So I’d ask myself instead: do you want to move to the next place? And I’d feel relief in that idea. So that’s something! But I didn’t leave early, I stayed for the two weeks. I had a feeling it would do me a lot of good. And, now I’m leaving, I can see that it has. I worked out some things, and most importantly, my mindset for this trip has settled. I now know what this year is for me, and it’s not comparable to a few months travelling, more like living abroad crossed with travelling. I’m also really proud that I was able to do two weeks alone! And I do feel better for it, I feel very refreshed. A lot of people I spoke to about travelling alone would tell me that they could never do it, that they didn’t do anything by themselves. I get it. But I do think that most people would enjoy doing something alone every now and then, and everyone would benefit from it. Maybe take this as a sign to go out for dinner by yourself - if I can do two weeks, you can do two hours!

Overall…

To summarise, I had an interesting two weeks. It had moments of extreme craziness and I’ve made memories that I’m sure will stand out even at the end of this year. But the rest of the time was often lonely. I think I’d have preferred to this two week stint later in the year, after I’d spent a lot of time in hostels and needed a break from all of the socialising. But Switzerland is located where it’s located, and I think it might actually have been very beneficial to do this so early on. I’ve definitely settled back into travelling now. But I am very happy to be on rejoining civilisation this evening!

Little update: I safely arrived in Munich last night, immediately made lots of hostel friends and didn’t go to bed until 6:30am (wild I know…), so definitely not feeling lonely anymore!

I lived with Eva for 2 weeks, and slowly, over every meal, I learnt about her life and her views and her personality. So here it is.

She’s now 88 which means she was born in 19 , in Prague. She studied medicine and became a dentist. She married her husband there, and they had two sons. Her husband was a banker. In 1969 they made the decision to move to Switzerland. This was because of the unstable political landscape of Prague at the time, with the Soviet Union having invaded Czechia in August 1968. She didn’t want her children’s schooling and lives to be based in this uncertain place. They chose Bern because, and I quote, ‘’it felt right”. It was the capital so it had the appeal of being the main place. It was small and beautiful. It was german speaking, and her husband spoke german. To continue being a dentist here Eva needed to learn german and take further exams, which she did (although I’m not convinced she’s fluent in german even now). For a time they lived in Bern with their children going to school and Eva and her husband going to work. It was repetitive and Eva grew tired of it. She found some land out a bit from Bern, in the countryside, and they bought it. Slowly they built the house she currently lives in. It has 7.5 hectares of land, and they planted trees, a vegetable garden, flowers, hedges, the lot. When it was ready they moved here, travelling to Bern for work still, and keeping their apartment in Bern. They bought animals and so they had their little space in the world. Eventually they stopped working in Bern, I’m not sure when, if it was at retirement or before this, and spent all their time at the house. It sounded like a happy life.
Then a young polish lady moved into the village which is close to the house. She was around the age of their children, now grown and living in Bern alone, perhaps slightly older. And after 50 years of marriage, Eva’s husband took a fancy to this woman, and that was that. He know lives in Paris with her, although has apparently recently moved back to Bern. This happened around 10 years ago, and I’ve never pushed Eva to talk about it, but sometimes she does. She tells me that she’s okay about it all now, but she hopes he doesn’t come to the house, as seeing him would pain her. She says looking back, she realised it wasn’t that happy. She was always wanting to do something, or make something, and he was always coming up with reasons why she should not. She said it made her a little bit happy to think over the lockdowns that she had this lovely house and gardens, and he was in a tiny apartment in Paris - she’s only human I suppose.

Eva’s views on the world are interesting. She always wants to know more, and do more. She tells me that even now, she doesn’t read fiction, only books that teach her something. If it is to be known, she must know it. She acknowledges that it’s silly to do this now, as she will never use the information. She says she needs many lives, to do all of the things she’s interested in - something I’ve thought myself! She’s passionate about the importance of being passionate. About everything you do, including work. But also about being flexible, and going with the flow of life. She doesn’t understand travelling without a purpose, for example going somewhere for a work conference is okay, but not just to visit the place. She seems very unimpressed with her children. They look down on Czech traditions, they don’t understand her life here with her animals, and they don’t have the passion that Eva feels they should have. I haven’t actually heard her say a good word about them. I wonder what she was like when they were growing up.
It’s been interesting to discuss the situation in Ukraine with her, and she has an almost sad interest in it. Like she doesn’t want to hear about it but can’t help herself, with a knowing of how it will end. We spoke one evening about a Ukrainian student that stayed with her family in 1943. The police came one evening and took him away, to send him to the Ukrainian army to fight in the war. Her father told her that if the boy survived he would come back and stay with them again. He didn’t come back. I’m sure it’s these memories, and memories of the Soviet Union invading Czechia, that makes the Ukrainian situation more personal for her.
The most interesting thing about my time with Eva has been watching someone come to terms with their age. As already mentioned, Eva is 88, and up to very recently she has been fairly mobile and had no pain. But now she struggles to walk and has pain in her leg. The first few days I was here, she would begin the day by taking her dog for a walk. But now she cannot manage this. Watching her realise the things she can no longer do, and understanding that this is not something that’s broken and can be fixed, but the beginning of one-way deterioration is (and I know how unsympathetic this sounds, but…) interesting. Yes I feel for Eva and how sad it’s making her, but beyond that, for me, it’s really interesting to see someone process it. It helps that I’ve only just met Eva, she’s not my grandma or anything so I’m not exactly attached to her. For me, she’s 88, it’s remarkable she’s gotten this far before the inevitable ageing has affected her massively. Surely she can see that, and be thankful it’s coming this late, rather than sad it’s come at all? But she cannot. And I’m sure, if I reach old age and face the same situation, I will not either.

Takeaway point, live while you’re young (and by young I mean any age that you’re still able move freely without pain (I realise this is ableist but I hope you understand my point)). So take a gap year or something…