Australians everywhere

It has been a very busy last couple of weeks. The weekend before last I met up with a friend from Melbourne in Berlin, and Claudi and I showed him some of the best ways to avoid sleeping. Activities included, but were not limited to, cocktails on a balcony in Friedrichshain, traditional German cuisine, Thai food (and eating whole chillies), the Reichstag building, East Side Gallery, dancing to mediocre DJs, dancing to good DJs with bad crowds, T-Shirt shopping, picnic in a park, sewing lessons and the Jewish museum.

He joined me in Magdeburg during the week, which meant our evenings were well stocked with DOTA. We even managed a D&D session, DMed by our guest.

Friday night we were out of town again enjoying both the old and new districts in Dresden. A friend of Claudi’s showed us some local evening activites, including the mandatory Kebap shop and rainy beer garden.

In the morning we were off on a riverboat through some unbelievable valleys past the summer homes of kings and other castle-like constructions. After 6 hours and 30 km we abandoned ship in the little town of Königstein. The lady in the information office laughed when I asked if there was a map of the town we could buy, “This is the town [points at the street out front], and that is the castle [points at castle]“.

Anyway, after finding the hostel we’d planned to stay at, which was actually a pretty decent walk along the river, we learnt a booking would have been a good idea. No problem, they suggested another one further up the road. But it was full too. Hmm, … this was starting to get a little concerning. And it was hot. And at least one of us had a heavy bag. How about calling the one in the Lonely Planet Guide (thanks Mum), nup all full. Lets go back to the first one and ask if they can rent-a-tent. Nope. Ok, rent-a-tent seems unlikely, but I want another excuse to say it, so we call the LPG hostel again and ask if they can rent-a-tent. Now I’m pretty sure nobody anywhere does this, but, after a little discussion he hesitantly admits they could probably fit us somewhere.

At this stage the idea of sleeping in a laundry or living room wasn’t sounding too bad, better than sleeping in the castle jail. But now there’s another problem, the hostel is on the other side of the river. But we saw a ferry when we arrived, so we’ll try that. Except the hostel is 3km from where the ferry would drop us. And we want to see the castle on this side of the river before turning in for the night.

The hostel guy says he can pick us up. I wasn’t sure what this meant. But a horse/bicycle/Sherpa sounded more likely to get us there and back before the castle closed. So we crossed the river and awaited our transportation assistance. After 20 minutes we decided at least walking had a finite duration. So we set off assuming we’d see him on the way. And sure enough 1km down the road we were met by motor-vehicular based burden alleviation.

The hostel was swarming with children, which were undoubtedly the reason for our hostel host’s hesitance at taking on more guests. Especially since the room he gave us was great—a converted attic with great views and mattresses.

We dumped our bags and prepared for a mountain climb. Telling our host we were off to see the castle he suggested we borrow some bikes. Minutes later we were peddling through the countryside past an idyllic river/castle/apple-field  and towards our ferry.

As we rounded the bend we saw the ferry almost ready for departure. One bike had steering lag and the other had but a single gear (damn you fixies), but we made good speed and rode down the ramp straight onto the ferry. A highlight like you wouldn’t believe. This was a Steve McQueen–The Great Escape moment, kind of. And the fact that the ferry goes every 10 minutes by no means lessens the experience.

Anyhow, the climb to the castle was nice exercise (see pictures). And from up there it is very easy to believe no one ever attempted a siege.

On Sunday we caught the train to Prague and saw Radiohead.

Very late Sunday night I caught a train back to Magdeburg, but not before spending a few cold and tired hours waiting for the train station to open.

An amazing trip, as you’ll see in the photos, and a few ruffians make an appearance too.

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