Let's get this blog started!

My name is Magdalena (surprise), I am 20 years old and about to tell you a bit more about my “Maturareise”, which is the journey I took after I graduated from school.
You might ask yourself now “What is that journey she is talking about?” and I am all too glad to answer that. After I graduated two of my friends and I decided to travel through Europe using the “Interrailticket“, which enables you to go by train wherever you would like to (in Europe). The exceptions are the country you live in and every country in Europe that is not part of that program. We decided to buy the “10 in 22 days”, meaning that we could go by train on ten days and that the ticked was valid for 22 days. 

Our first stop was Berlin, where we stayed at a camp-site, remote from the city center but not too far away from it either. It was a strange experience as everything seemed to remind you about World War II, which is not surprising but non the less a bit grotesque after a while. Besides that there were funny stores like the “Ampelmann Shop”, wholly dedicated to the little man on the street-lights. The reason for that is, that the so called “Ampelmann” looks different in the different parts of Germany. Other things that we visited where the “Alex” (the television tower on the Alexanderplatz), one part of the Wall that still stands and is now painted by different artists, Checkpoint Charlie and much more.

After Berlin we went to Hamburg for one day but we didn't really see much of it as it was just a stopover between Berlin and Copenhagen. Hamburg was one of the two cities we stayed in a Hostel and the funny thing about the one in Hamburg was that is was painted in pink and had the tiniest bathroom I have ever seen. It was less than two meters in length and about a meter in width. You could barely move at all without falling over or out of the shower right into the main room. All in all I think there are some nice places to visit there, even though we didn't really get the chance to do so.
 

Moving on, we finally went to Copenhagen. What I could see from the train window, Denmark is a beautiful country that I would love to revisit to not only see more cities but the nature as well. Copenhagen itself is a very intriguing place, where there seem to be more bikes than cars and where one part of the town decided to live autonomously. Again we stayed on a camp-site where it was very hot during the day but astoundingly cold during the night. But even the hot weather couldn't stop us from searching for the Little Mermaid or looking inside churches and gaping at the amazing fountains they have. We even went into the Tivoli park, which I would compare to the Prater in Vienna. Despite getting lost once I enjoyed our stay in Copenhagen.

From Copenhagen we went to Amsterdam which took us over 12 hours by train, luckily we had a reservation for a compartment with beds. I think the train even skipped some stops because it was running horribly late. Amsterdam was yet again a very interesting experience. The camp-site we built our tent on was the most beautiful I have ever seen and many others seemed to agree as it was stuffed with tents, huts, caravans and cars. Despite being a beautiful city, I would not really like to live in Amsterdam for a longer period of time. First of all, with all those grachten I would get lost all the time and there are far too many tourists and people riding their bicycles in a very dangerous way. A different reason would be that everyone seems to be smoking pot and that all the time. In the morning when I left the tent at eight I would walk at least past one tent that was practically surrounded by smoke. Looking back on it, Amsterdam is a lovely city, with it's grachten and some of the houses leaning forward but still there is something really strange about it too.

Our last, or my last stop, was in Brussels where we stayed at a hostel for the second time and were fortunate enough to find a free tour on the second day. I personally liked Brussels with it's old houses, beer, chocolate and fries, but back to the tour. The tour was amazing! Our guide belonged to a organisation called “Sandeman”, which offers free tours in different locations all over Europe and even the US and the Middle East. I never met anyone more in love with the traditions and the country they live in. Everything seemed to be exciting, every aspect of Belgium, every bar of chocolate, every step of making fries, every event in history and especially the beer. If our guide liked something more than the country itself it was the beer! And I have to say, I understand why, even though I was only able to taste two of the many different sorts they have.

After Brussels it was my time to part away and find a train to take me home again, while my two friends went to visit Bruges for a day. All in all those two weeks were an amazing experience, we did not only see different places but also met new and interesting people and I dare say, discovered some new aspects of ourselves, at least I did. I can only recommend this way of traveling as it is beautiful and exciting at the same time and I think you are able to discover things you normally wouldn't see.