A Collection of Daily Wisdom by Dennis Sylvester Hurd since September 2003.

I'm still not tired or perhaps I'm simply past the stage of tiredness.

One cannot take a real vacation and come back the same person. Being outside of one's usual element is crucial for growth. European kids are lucky to have such a variety of culture that's so easily accessible.



Some basic daily living in other places can be a true eye-opener. One questions one's usual practices and routines. There's nothing inherently right about the way that one has been socialized. If a trip is truly educational then one plays a lot of what-if questions throughout the journey. For example, I wondered if I'd have a different sense of humour if I spoke a different language. Or, I thought about how those who grew up under communism feel about brash, new billboards touting the latest in Euro-fashions.

I could spend a lot of money on a new vehicle or take several months of vacation a year where I question things about the planet I'm on. I guess I'll choose the latter.

Labels: Eurotrip 2007, feelings

We got up plenty early today. The Munich YMCA puts on a nice continental breakfast buffet. As our plane doesn't depart until evening, we are in no rush. We bought the big zone transit tickets for 18 Euros so we could re-visit some downtown spots and later head out to the airport which is about 45 minutes away. We had a nice relaxing morning and ate lunch in the only Indian restaurant of our trip. We were waiting to be checked in by 3:20 pm.

Labels: Eurotrip 2007, Munich

Today, we needed to get back to Munich. Since, it takes only a little more than four hours by train, we reserved seats for the 1:16 pm trip. That meant we had enough time to slowly pack up our bags and head downtown. Unlike yesterday, we had picked up stuff for breakfast and ate before leaving. We stuffed the bags into a train station locker and walked back down towards the lake. We were able to stroll back in time for a quick lunch.

On the train, we enjoyed to scenery. Some of the cheese we saw for sale must've come from the gray cows munching grass. In our train car there were a group of young Swiss guys heading to the last weekend of Octoberfest. They certainly didn't find any reason to start the party in Germany. By the time we arrived in Munich at a bit after 5:00 pm, they staggered out of the station singing and shouting.

Labels: Eurotrip 2007, Munich, train

It was a wonderful day for sightseeing in Zurich, Switzerland.



Tomorrow, we take the train back to Munich so we can easily catch Friday's flight to Vancouver.

Labels: Eurotrip 2007, Zurich

We really had to get up early today in order to make it up several subway stops to the Eurolines bus station by 6:40. We spend the entire day crossing from Vienna back into Germany, even stopping in Munich again! We kept truckin' until we got to Zurich at around 6:15 pm. The bus must've done a slow and steady 100 KPH.

Highway views differ from those of trains. The roads were pretty much like US Interstates. Seeing rural areas was a necessary contrast to our time spent in urban areas.

After getting into Zurich it was a difficult figuring out how to get change for local transit. We had arranged for a bed & breakfast stay prior to leaving Canada. We made it to the home of our hosts around 7:30 pm.

Labels: Eurotrip 2007, transit

Labels: Eurotrip 2007, Vienna

Labels: Eurotrip 2007, Vienna