After Amsterdam, Berlin would be city number 2 of 7 that I would be visiting on this trip.  I caught the train from Amsterdam and was in Berlin in a “swift” 7 hours: P When I got in I checked into the Backpax Mitte Hostel which was really nice and had a good atmosphere.  In this evening I took a walk into town and went along the Spree near to the Bode Museum.  There were loads of people in the park just chilling with live music playing; it was such a nice relaxing atmosphere.  The architecture of the buildings around here was absolutely stunning.

Alexanderplatz was a nice contrast to the older buildings with lots of newer architecture including the Fernsehturm.

Fernsehturm

For the next couple of days I basically just walked around admiring all of the amazing architecture.  It was roasting the whole time which didn’t make the walking easy but I really shouldn’t complain when I come from Scotland.  The night time views of the city from the roof of the Reichstag and the Reichstag dome were particularly beautiful.

The Berlin wall memorial was really interesting.  It is crazy to think that this wall was still up in my lifetime! What is even crazier is that you have idiots like Donald Trump who are still talking about building walls.

The memorial to the murdered Jews was  really informing but also really sad.Now this may have not happened in my lifetime but it still wasn’t that long ago which I find hard to get my head around!

Food-wise, Berlin was a fecking dream for a Vegan; there were so many good places to eat.  Places that I ate at included the Falafel Dream Food Truck where I had an awesome falafel wrap and Vegetarisches where a fantastic Thai green curry with crispy noodles was devoured

At the hostel I chatted to a couple of lovely German lassies, Lea and Cheyenne, from southern Germany who told me stories of the not so cosmopolitan and less tolerant of English ways of the deep south!:P  Nevertheless they still recommend exploring that part of the country.

 

City number 3 was Prague.  I checked into Hostel Lipa which was quite small and basic but really nice.  It wasn’t in the best area but for about 10 Euros a night I really couldn’t complain.  On the first night I went to the Loving Hut for dinner which was a vegan buffet.  It was amazing and great value.  Needless to say, I went back there for dinner on my second night as well.

The architecture was amazing in Prague as well.  Some of the highlights included The Old Town Square, King Charles Bridge and St Vitus Cathedral.  The cathedral was a stunning gothic masterpiece and I couldn’t help but be amazed at the amount of detail on it.

I loved all of the tiny twisting and turning streets.  They did make for a bit of a navigation nightmare at times, even with GPS, but I think that is more of a reflection on my navigation skills than the complexity of the terrain: P

 

City number 4…. Salzbuuuuurg, which was not as much of a vegan dream  but it wasn’t that surprising being a smaller city.  I did manage to find the (probably) only vegan restaurant in the city called The Heart of Joy where I had a pretty decent faux ham sandwich. 

I checked into the Yoho International Hostel which was a pretty big hostel with a good atmosphere and a decent bar.  I was sharing my room with an American couple, Caroline and Eric, and we made use of the bar to play some card drinking games which was pretty fun!

As far as I was concerned Salzburg has a bit of everything, an awesome castle, a cool coloured river, stunning architecture and to top it off is situated on the edge of the Austrian Alps.  The audio tour in the castle was pretty cool too which explained how the castle originated as a chapel with some walls around it and was gradually developed and strengthened over 800 years.  In this time it was never taken by force and only captured once by Napoleon…not a bad track record! Exploring the castle was really fun too because I felt like I was in a proper medieval castle.  It also boasted pretty amazing views of the city below and the surrounding mountains. When I crossed the Makartsteg footbridge I may have been the only one on it not with a significant other!:P

Makartsteg Footbridge

Now the next place I visited was not one of the 7 cities but from Salzburg I took a day trip to the village of Hallstatt.  The drive itself was beautiful as mountains and lakes passed by.  Hallstatt is situated in an incredibly beautiful setting on the edge of a gorgeous lake surrounded by mountains.  It is a proper little tourist town but still worth a visit.  The houses built into the hillside were pretty awesome.  I took a ride up the funicular and the views from the top were pretty spectacular.

Now it was time to say goodbye to the mountains and make my way to the east end of the country.