My Germany Trip

The Idea

My 2023 summer internship was 12 weeks long instead of the usual 16, which gave me five weeks of time between the end of my winter internship and the start of my summer internship. I knew that I wanted to use this opportunity to travel, but I wasn’t sure where to go. This would be a solo trip as everyone else I knew was in school or on co-op.

Fall 2022

At the chess club, I recognized the voice of my opponent to be the guy in class who asks all the questions. He was, in fact, one of the few people who participated in class 🤓. The other friend I made at the chess club was an exchange student. We joked as we played our game and afterward, I asked if he was an exchange student. I wanted to guess his country, but couldn’t decipher his accent. We talked a bit more, and when he pronounced “won’t” like “wundt,” I knew he was German. I got to know him better and soon enough, my two new friends joined my classmates in our Friday night board games.

Our group is composed of first and second-generation immigrants from East Asia, South Asia, Persia, and the Arab world. The German was really interested in hearing how we all ended up in Canada. He had never before had so many people together from all over the world. I blurted out “Das war ein Befehl!” as we played Secret Hitler and threw German words in the mix as we played. The German said he wasn’t sure if he was currently impressed or concerned 😇.

After exams, he asked if I wanted to explore the city together. I had already moved back home to Toronto, which turned out to be perfect because he wanted to revisit Toronto. After a day of walking, we rested in the art gallery to chat. He was hoping to see some Canadian art, but most of the artwork was European 🙃. He said that I should visit him in Munich sometime, and indeed, I had long dreamed of seeing Europe. I love history and I wanted to see all the places I’ve read about.

Winter 2023

Germans at work

I did an internship from January to April at Snowflake’s San Mateo (California) office. One of the interns was a masters student from Berlin. He was significantly older than me—I was the youngest intern at 19 and he was the oldest at 25, the same age as my mentor. One day the interns did a voluntold volunteering event at a food bank. I chopped vegetables beside him and heard him whistle a familiar tune.

Is that “Der Offene Aufsmarsch?”

He was so shocked. He had—in fact—in mind the original version of the song, Der Heimliche Aufsmarsch. I was thinking of a later DDR version of the same tune. He told others that this was an obscure German communist song from the 1920s that no one in Germany knows. One night his brother randomly showed him this banger. Something about us standing in an assembly line, each performing his step in preparing food reminded him of a factory.

He then talked about East Germany and we sang some less obscure German songs. We had a blast in the kitchen and the other interns sure thought we were I was weird 🙃. He was certain that he wanted to go back to Germany to raise a family. Even Berlin, one of the poorest places in Germany that he considered dirty, is better than any American city. Damn—if Berlin is considered bad, then Munich must be paradise.

That night, I went to the beer garden with the German, my mentor, and another engineer who was about to go to Berlin! Some teams were being reorganized and he was going to the Berlin office to hand off a project. My mentor’s subteam was also handing off a topic to the Berlin office. The subteam lead was German but didn’t want to go, so she was hoping to get the chance to do the handoff. It appears that that Friday, we all converged to one place.

Planning

I told the German exchange student that I wanted to go to Germany in May and he said,

Normally, I wouldn’t recommend Germany as a tourist destination in Europe, but for you, yes.

With the help of the Germans, I planned 24 days in Europe! I would spend most of it in Germany, but also Central/Eastern Europe because it was cheap and I like the Eastern—particularly Slavic—feel more than Western or Mediterranean Europe. I took French throughout high school but have no interest in it. I don’t know German or Russian, but I love to hear these languages. Perhaps I was born in the wrong country…

The Trip

On the plane

On the flight from Toronto to Munich, I sat beside an old Austrian man named Ebhardt. He moved to Canada when he was 30 and settled in Victoria with his Quebecois wife. He’s been there for 37 years and loves the little town. He talked of his travels around the world: living in the Himalayas, travelling Italy and Greece, his friend getting mugged in Peru, … I told him I loved the mountains of the SF Bay Area but this was too crowded for him. He knew incredible people: dukes, an aristocrat who owned land all over Europe, someone whose ancestors fought for von Wallenstein, … what a fun life!

Albrecht von Walleinstein

Munich - 6 days

I arrived at the airport at 7h30 on May 8 (happy Victory Day 🎉). My friend insisted on picking me up despite there being a train directly to his place and that he normally wakes up in the afternoon 🐷.

He asked me how my flight was and how I was feeling. I was about to fall dead asleep, but I was pumped to be here! As his flight last year to Canada was taking off, he was hit with the realization that he was going to be far away from home. Worse yet, he came with a friend who was freaking out and asking “what are we going to do!?!” 🤣 But I had gone to California to start a new life before; I was ready for this adventure.

I think I am the most independent among my Canadian peers, but children are raised to be more independent in Germany. It’s common for Germans to take a gap year between high school and university to travel the world.

I stayed in his house and met his parents. Their generation doesn’t know much English—it’s the people under 30 who become fluent through consuming English content.

Their townhouse is in a small village that I hesitate to call a suburb. Their urban design confused me. I get that they have S-Bahns instead of highways, but the tiny alleyways and small houses in the middle of farmland seem suboptimal. Why not enjoy the luxury of large houses and lawns in the suburbs? Nonetheless, this was ideal: the convenience of transit, walkability, and retail in a suburb.

This isn’t a travel blog so I won’t bother covering my tourist activities. Here’s an incomplete list:

• Marienplatz + city centre
• Schloss Schleißheim
• Englischer Garten
• Konzentrationslager Dachau
• BMW Welt + BMW Museum
• Olympic Park
• Deutsche Museum The best science museum I’ve ever been to. The airplane room blew me away: they had all the famous WW2 aircraft, including a Ju 52 that you could board!

So many planes!

Amurica 🐷

We also went down to Neuschwanstein for a day which was very nice. I missed hiking all the time in California. Schloss Neuschwanstein 🥹

Munich is a very clean and modern city, but I didn’t find it all that interesting as a tourist. It would certainly be a great place to live, but it didn’t have the tourist vibes. And sadly, it was continuously raining that week. I was also jetlagged 😐. I might not be giving Munich a fair review…

Vienna - 3 days

We had planned to go to Vienna together, but he was tired from the Neuschwanstein trip and still had his bachelor’s thesis to complete, so he stayed home.

Like before, here is a short list of places I went to:

• Sigmund Freud Museum
• Schlosspark Schönbrunn
• St. Stephen’s Cathedral
• Architekturzentrum
• Albertina
• Museum of Military History

Ah yes, the famous Austrian battles of Leuthen, Hohenfriedberg, and Königgrätz 🤣

I went to a Chinese fast food place and was able to order and chat a bit in Mandarin. On my way out, a tall German came in and spoke to me. I replied, “sorry, I don’t understand” and he responded in such clear English: “that looks delicious!”

It got sunnier when I was in Vienna. It felt nice walking around now that I wasn’t jetlagged and there was sun. I liked that Vienna was full of grand stone buildings, but it still felt a bit dead.

Bratislava/Preßburg - 1 day, 0 nights

On my way from Vienna to Budapest, I stopped by Bratislava for a few hours. Off the train, I immediately felt I was in a second-world country. Aside from the Presidential Palace, the buildings were run-down. I walked to the old town, which consisted of stone buildings with small corridors between them. This had a nice medieval feel. I then thought it would be a good idea to walk up Bratislava Castle carrying my luggage in one hand and my umbrella in the other. It was not worth the effort 🐒.

I like the run-down look of the city

Budapest - 4 days, 5 nights

The first day, I went on a morning run around the perimeter of Margaret Island on the Danube. It was a nice run, but it wasn’t worth tiring myself out while travelling. I spent my second day hiking between the hills of Buda and enjoying the views.

View from a hill of Buda

I love the old and casual (as opposed to grand) feel of the city. The museums were rich and just as patriotic as I had expected of Hungary. However, Magyar/Hungarian was completely foreign to me. I recognized no cognates as I would have found in Germanic and Romance languages, and the spoken sounds were unrecognizable to me (unlike Slavic sounds). Hungary felt completely foreign.

I took a chill third day and it was good that I did so because I was bedridden with the stomach flu for the next two days. I was eating cheap street food the past couple of days and now came to regret it. This experience was worse than COVID or the flu. Perhaps I should have sought out medical attention as I couldn’t digest food and my lips were dry from dehydration, but I ended up dragging myself to the store for sports drinks, which was enough to keep me hydrated.

Hamburg - 1 day, 1 night

I was still in pain on the flight to Hamburg, but felt well enough to explore the city the following day. It felt amazing to be in a cool maritime city here after being under the Budapest heat. I couldn’t do much as I was too weak to walk far, so I’ll need to revisit Hamburg some time.

Beautiful models of a turtle ship, a treasure ship, and WW2 cruisers and battleships

I was looking forward to the high-speed rail from Hamburg to Berlin, but it was disappointing. The Deutsche Bahn is full of delays and half the time the train was travelling at the speed of an automobile.

A bit slow…

Berlin - 5 days

My Snowflake friend came to pick me up at the train station. He was my height and I had to keep reminding him to slow down his walking pace. His flat was on the (fifth?, 0-indexed) floor and I was thankful he could carry my luggage and backpack for me. He saw how hard I struggled up the stairs and remarked that it was a miracle that I managed to get here.

I had mostly recovered the next day and went out to enjoy Berlin. I was surprised that my tall and strong friend ate so little meat—about once per week, and the rest of his protein came from lentils. He even said that eating more than one egg was too much protein to digest at once. How odd!? I often eat two eggs for breakfast. He told me how great their Döner is and I agree, but the shawarma back home is just as good. Sadly I didn’t get a chance to try Currywurst 😭.

Once again, here are some of the places I visited:

• Museum Isle
• German History Museum
• Victory column
• Reichstag
• Tiergarten

View of the Tiergarten from the Siegessäule

• Potsdamer Platz
• Brandenburger Tor
• Soviet War Memorial

• Cecilienhof
• Checkpoint Charlie
• DDR Museum
• Stasi Museum
  As visitors were talking quietly and appreciating the museum, the children of a Black American family walked past while babbling loudly. My friend and I couldn’t continue our conversation until they were far enough that we didn’t have to shout over them. “Was zum Teufel? What were they even saying?” I had somehow understood their commotion but didn’t judge it worth explaining. I instead replied with, “the average American speaks 0.5 languages.”

Near the end of my stay in Berlin, my Snowflake mentor arrived for her handoff! The three of us met and hung out just like in San Mateo. How lucky I was to meet these two and see them again in Berlin! I miss the chill winter days in California 😌.

Snowflake Berlin office

I asked my mentor how long she would travel alone. She said it’s been less than a week and she’s technically also working at the moment, but that she’d say six months. That was completely out of my range! I’d only been travelling for three weeks and I was overjoyed just to be with an American again.

Prague - 2 days

The Moldau/Vltava

Minutes before arriving at Prague Main Station, the train crossed the Moldau/Vltava and the speakers began playing Moldau. Although it was a humble river and city, the music made it feel grand. It was timed to end just as we pulled into the station.

Tourists

Prague has a lively city centre much like Budapest. It’s much smaller and quieter, with city and greenery winding through the hills. It would have been a nice place to rest a few day in the middle of my trip.

The KGB Museum

I found an odd store in a strip mall called the KGB Museum. It was a room full of historical Soviet military and spy equipment run by a Russian. He would give hour-long tours whenever at least four people showed up, each paying 20€, which was a lot in Czechia. Three Irish students were also checking out the museum but only one of them wanted to pay for the tour. 20 minutes later, we had enough people so the tour began. It became clear pretty quickly that this Russian was a bit crazy. The whole time, he had a television playing the 2015 Moscow Victory Day Parade (2015 was the best year 😉) and patriotic Russian/Soviet songs including the rock version of The Red Army is the Strongest and Конь (of course I know his songs 🙊). He’d occasionally dial up the volume and yell УРААААААААА!¹ The tour was a unique experience well worth my money.

View atop Petřín Hill

On my last day, I went up Petřín Hill for a view of the entire city. It wasn’t crowded at all, so I guess it wasn’t a popular tourist destination like Prague Castle. Back in California, my mentor recommended The Unbearable Lightness of Being, her favourite novel. An important scene took place on the peak of Petřín Hill that was evoked again and again throughout the novel—by now it was ingrained in my mind. So of course, I had it play out in my mind on the field in front of me.

The novel, history, and music, made Prague a wonderful experience. I read the Count of Monte Cristo throughout the trip and I can see myself experiencing Marseilles likewise in the future.

My return flight stopped over at Zurich, which I wish I had the time and funds to visit. As said earlier, I kept this trip cheap by going to Central/Eastern Europe and staying with friends in Germany. I didn’t have the appetite for restaurant food so I ate Döners the whole time. It cost $2800 USD excluding flights and was an amazing experience. This was the furthest I had travelled from home and my first solo trip! I was apprehensive while planning, but I’m glad I got the push I needed to make this happen. I can’t wait for my next trip to see the rest of the continent!

Footnotes

1. Ура = hooray in Russian; chanted in unison by soldiers ↩︎