Due to our decision to avoid flights, our journey across Russia and south east Asia would first begin with a trip across central and eastern Europe. We would travel through Munich, Prague, Katowice, Krakow, Lviv, Vinnysia, and Kiev on our way to Moscow.

Munich

Naturally our trip began in Bern, where we took the train to Munich. Our train left at about seven in the morning and arrived in Munich roughly 6 hours later. The hostel was a 20 minute walk from the train station.

Munich was the most familIar part of our trip as it was culturally and architecturally very similar to home. The two most interesting events were the kebab and the toilet, thankfully unrelated, both chronologically and thematically.

The Kebab was amazing, it was my first taste of a true German kebab. Although I’m sure many will argue otherwise. After tring this kebab Mirjam and I both agreed that we would need to go on a kebab adventure in Berlin in the future.

The toilet was a misfortunate event in our Hostel. One of us (not me) had used slightly too much toilet paper and flooded the toilet. But for some reason the toilet kept filling with water until the toilet room was covered in smelly poo water. Of course we immediately contacted reception who assured us someone would come soon to fix it. Morning came and no one had cleaned the toilet. We promptly left to catch our train to Prague.

Prague

We spent three days in Prague. Two nights in an unimaginably shit hostel called Attila, and the third in a much nicer one. The former was the cheapest, had no key to the door, and the kitchen was literally inside one of the other dorm rooms.

Prague is a beautiful city steeped in history and alcohol. In some ways it is the Amsterdam of beer. We thoroughly enjoyed roaming around the city and enjoying the sites. We didn’t take full advantage of the good tram system but I would highly recommend it. Get a day ticket and avoid sore feet.

We went to a couchsurfing event on the second day. Couchsurfing is a platform that allows people to share their home to travellers for free. There are many couchsurfing events organised that allow couchsurfers to meet up in a bar. This was a great opportunity to get drunk and meet new people. On this night we learnt a new term that I feel is very relevant to Prague. Disneyfication.

This is the process that occurs to almost every tourist destination. Whereby the city transforms into a cultural theme park, complete with exaggerations of the culture of the city and rides consisting of bus tours and guides. Many enjoy this simplified and expensive funfair but personally I find it exhausting. Trying to find a reasonably priced place to eat or drink that isn’t really crap is hard.

The third night proved to be quite entertaining in our hostel but I dont have the time to expand it upon it right now. Perhaps another time I can create a separate post to tell the story of “Sexy Jack”!

After Prague the plan was to visit Krakow, but a festival that weekend would make it a very expensive stay. We took a detour to nearby Katowice instead.

Katowice

Katowice itself is an old mining town that recently has had a cultural resurgence. It is a mix of old dilapidated apartment blocks and new trendy bars.

This was a nice change from bustling Prague. We stayed one night in Katowice in a very nice hostel. We had a private room which was also nice change from the 8 bed dorms.

After enjoying some good beer in Katowice we headed to Krakow the following morning.

Krakow

Krakow is a typical european city. meandering road ways and an old town filled with bars, restaurants and souvenir shops. But the old town in Krakow is quite special. It is right in the center and enclosed by a large ring shaped park. You could easily spend a whole week in this area. Also, the prices are very reasonable. A beer would set you back around 1.50 CHF or roughly the same in Euro.

We stayed in a hostel called Hostel Deco, which was decorated as you would expect. The rooms were very clean and comfortable and they also had a well fitted kitchen, which delighted us as we had not had a kitchen up to this point. They also had a laundry service which was free for the first wash.

We spent our time in Krakow, as usual, drinking, eating and sightseeing. One area I would highly recommend is the jewish quarter. It’s a wonderful collection of more expensive but more eccentric bars and restaurants.

While in Krakow we realised we had a big problem; travelling to Moscow through Riga in Latvia would not be possible as we would have to travel through Belarus, which requires a visa that we do not have. Woops! Some quick planning led us to a trip through Ukraine. We booked a night bus to Lviv for the following day.