germany: garmisch-partenkirchen

i lived in garmisch-partenkirchen for nearly three years after i graduated from uni...a beautiful town in the south of germany...in the german state of bayern, gap (the town designation on german license plates) is only 11km or so from the border with austria...the town is located in the middle of a valley in the alps...mountains everywhere you look...
my flight landed on time, and i took the sbahn to the hauptbahnhof in munich...from there i bought a ticket for the next train to garmisch, i only had to wait 15 minutes...(trains to garmisch from munich run every hour, so i wouldn't have had to wait much longer, even if i just missed a train)...yippee:)

as i was sitting on the train, i listened to the conversations around me...in english i heard someone say i would have to get off the train at murnau, then take a bus the rest of the way to gap...the ticket didn't say this, i figured i would see what happened...it turned out there is work being done on the tracks, so the train stops at murnau, and everyone gets off...there are buses lined up to take everyone where they need to go...the bus ride went smoothly, and dropped me off at the train station in garmisch...
the walk to where i was staying was easy, my memory didn't let me down...well, sortof...i took a couple wrong turns, but realized it quickly and was able to get going back on the right street straightaway...it's been a bunch of years since i've walked that walk...

when i got to where i was staying, i put my bag away, and just relaxed...i stayed with a friend who has a daughter, she came home first...the last time i saw her she was not yet in primary school, so she seemed huge to me...i felt like such an old lady saying "i remember when you were thiiiiiis big"...not surprisingly, she didnt remember me from all those years ago...
i made dinner plans for that night before arriving in town, as i wanted to make sure to see several people...plus, even though i haven't eaten there often, the fiaker is now one of my favourite restaurants in a town full of restaurants...3 hours later i came home, fat and happy:)
i was awake until 0200 that night, and didn't really wake up until 1100 the next morning...so much for getting up early, heading to a bakery for breakfast, then going for a long hike...ooops...

instead i wandered around partenkirchen for a while...when i lived in gap, i technically lived in garmisch, my work was located in garmisch, the gym was in garmisch, and the commissary was located in garmisch...so guess where i spent most of my time...of course i'd been to partenkirchen (i always thought the partenkirchen fest is better than the garmischer fest) but not a whole lot...
after treating myself to gelato (twice) i went home and we headed to the commissary...since i live abroad, there are a bunch of american foods i crave (mostly because they aren't available to me, not because i actually think they are good) and a trip to an american grocery store is a huge treat...afterward, we went to dinner at another of my favourite restaurants, bei marcus...it's in a different place now, and i'm not sure i love it as much as i did, but the food was good, as was the conversation...

the next morning i did get up at a reasonable hour, and finally did the hike i've thought about doing for 12 years...i hiked the kramer...for many people who lived in garmisch, hiking the kramer happened simply because of proximity...it's literally in our backyard...the mountain/hill is directly behind the building in which i lived for nearly three years...yet somehow i never hiked it...i was determined to change that fact during this visit, and i did...woo hoo!! a 5.5 hour return trip hike...the first half is quite easy, the trail is wide, the views are great...the second half is a lot steaper, the trail more narrow (but still very well defined) and the views still awesome...as i got up to the top i was swallowed in fog, (booooo) but I DID IT!!!

by the time i got back down my legs felt like jelly, and my host kidded me about being an old woman...hee hee...it was a struggle to get in the shower, my legs didn't like stairs (especially going down) at that point...
dinner that night was at a classic gap restaurant...well, classic in that every afrc employee has probably eaten there numerous times...zirbel
the next morning i hauled myself out of bed at the completely unreasonable hour of 0700, to meet a couple friends for breakfast at a bakery...one of the friends had a day tour planned, the other was in town visiting and was going to take his pregnant wife around later, so morning was the only option for our meeting...

hobis bakery is awesome, and i always eat too many pastries...good food (heaps of sugar,) and more good conversation...i always wonder why i left garmisch after get togethers with old garmisch friends...
on the way 'home' i wandered around the older sections of town, taking photos...with the amazing weather i knew i'd get good photos of the lovely buildings, and the ridiculous explosion of flowers everywhere...picturesque is usually one of the words used to describe garmisch, and for good reason...classic bavarian architecture, gorgeous flowers, etc...

after a quick change of clothing i went hiking again...this time i followed signs up to the pflegersee, and the old ruins up in that area...not a challenging hike, but it felt good to move again; it helped loosen up my legs from the day before...since garmisch-partenkirchen is located in a valley in the alps, there are great hiking trails all around...a lot of trails i somehow didn't hike when i lived there, argh...
we made another trip to the commissary, and then went to dinner at a classic touristy place, the werdenfelserhof...dinner was with my host, the daughter, and a friend of my host...good fun...adolescent boys did a traditional dance, all the diners give them coins as tips...

the next morning, on the way to the aiport, we stopped at hobis so i could stock up on a few pastries...i miss garmisch!!

kyiv: 3 days to adjust to this time zone

after all of that traveling to get back to kyiv from argentina, i had three days to try to adjust to the east european time zone...it never really worked, oh well...
as soon as i got back to my flat, i dropped my bags, grabbed some money, then went to the office where i pay my internet bill...i discovered it had moved, eeek...thank goodness, there were maps on the door of the old office, so i was able to figure out where to go to find the new office...it wasn't far...i paid my bill, and thought everything was hunky dory...
after picking up groceries on the way home, i found out internet hadn't yet been turned back on...not only was i not able to get online, my computer wasn't even registering any wireless networks...i decided to wait a few hours, maybe it just needed time...by 2100, i still wasn't able to get online, so i walked back to the office...but it was closed...eeek...

since i couldn't get online, i used my evening to take photos from memory cards and put them on my computer and back them up with the external hard drive...it's probably a good thing i wasn't able to get online, there were no distractions...otherwise dealing with all the photos would've taken a LONG time, since the trip was 7 weeks, and i took a lot of photos...
i also used the evening to do laundry...it's easy to dump clothes straight from my pack into the washer...perhaps the dirtiest item was my red jacket...it looked totally different when i took it out of the washer an hour later:)
the next morning i was at the office 10 minutes after it opened...
on the way home, i stopped for fresh raspberries from one of the babushkas on the street...YUM...

i walked back into my apartment building, stepped into the elevator, the doors closed, and...nothing...the lights turned off, the elevator didn't move!!! i'm not claustrophobic, but i am worried when i can't get out of somewhere...i've seen the elevators stop working heaps of times throughout the year, and it often took over a week for them to be fixed...i was NOT keen on the idea of being stuck in there for a week...i banged on the door and yelled...after 10 minutes or so, some guys decided to help me...(they probably felt sorry for me)...another 30 minutes after that, they were somehow able to get the doors open...phew...i felt soooo much better...
needless to say, i took the stairs to get up to my flat, even though i live on the 8th floor:)
by the time i got up to my flat, my internet was working again...yahoo...let the distraction begin:)

one of the things i love about this time of year in kyiv is the explosion of beautiful flowers...there are heaps of flowers planted around most apartment buildings...
i didn't really adjust to the time zone, i kept going to sleep at 3 in the morning, and waking up around 11...that's not like the normal me at all...thankfully, when i woke up the last morning, i decided to double check my flight time for later that day...i'm not sure how, but i had the idea that my flight left at 2200 or so...it turned out i was very wrong...my flight left at 1530...lets just say i got ready in a hurry:)

argentina: buenos aires goodbye

my flight from Ushuaia arrived in Buenos aires as scheduled, and I took the shuttle and public transport to the hostel i'd reserved before the last time I left Buenos aires..since this was my third time arriving in the city, I felt like an old pro...it was a lot easier to get around (yay for the sube card!!) and I knew where I was going...
the place i'd booked was cheap, so I wasn't entirely surprised when my single room had a smushy bed and a sketchy door...plus, it was cold, and wifi most definitely did not reach...
the next morning breakfast was sorely lacking...no milk, no butter, no sugar...so the only option for the hard rolls was dulce de leche...I don't dislike the stuff, but it's not what I want in the morning...lets just say I was only too happy to pack up my stuff and walk a couple kilometers to a different hotel...

one habit I've picked up while traveling is to treat myself a bit during my last night of a trip...I booked a single room in a nicer area of town, it had a bathtub, a proper bed, cable tv, etc...
after getting settled I met up with Lissette at smeterling, the german bakery i'm sure I've mentioned in a previous post...soooooo good...she and I gorged (i'm very good at influencing people who don't normally eat that much sugar:) even though we were planning to go to dinner afterward...since I knew I was going back to Ukraine, I wanted to eat at much goodness as I could while I could...
we went to la Cabrera for dinner...YUM...a great steak place, I wish I could find something that good elsewhere in the world...(meaning, I wish I could find something that good in Kyiv)...

not my hotel, but it looked awfully nice :)

after dinner we met up with a group of girls at rey de copas...4 americans, 3 dutch, 1 swede, and 1 portena...as they say, great people, great conversation...on our way home in a taxi, the driver asked Lissette where she was from; he said she spoke local Spanish, but he could also hear her speak perfect English to me...that's a huge compliment to her :)
breakfast at my hotel the next morning wasn't all that great, but it wasn't awful either...
I met up with Lissette for lunch at la cocina, I wanted more of the yummy empanadas there...i would be happy to eat empanadas all the time, even though i know they aren't great for you...

afterward, we took a bus to la boca...we stayed in the safe area, of course...when lonely planet actually labels a map with "don't go here" then you know it's bad...the weather was stunning, so I pulled out the camera for a few last photos...Lissette also helped me buy a fake boca jr jacket...I have no idea why I wanted one, but I did...while we were hanging out in the area we met celine, a French/Italian...another awesome chick...she ended up tagging along with us for the next few hours...
sadly, that was the end of my argentine adventure...(this time, anywho)...we went back to my hotel and picked up my bags, then the girls walked with me to the departure stop for the shuttle bus to the airport...I was sad to leave :(
due to long flights and time zones, I actually arrived in Kyiv two days later, having totally lost one of the days in between...

argentina: ushuaia...fin del mundo

it took three buses, and two countries to get from el calafate to ushuaia...the first bus (which departed at 0300, ugh) took me from el calafate to rio gallegos...i was lucky enough to find a plug with which i was able to recharge my iphone while waiting in the bus station in rio gallegos...the second bus wasn't nearly as nice as all the other buses i'd ridden around argentina...i was in the front seat, but it didn't give me a view...unless you count staring at a curtain behind the driver a 'view'...ugh...this second bus took me through chile, which was NOT a fast part of the journey...we stood around for what seemed like ages...

crossing into chile involved everyone getting off the dust and queueing in a office of sorts, i think it was a security check...we walked through a metal detector, and our carryon bags were put through an x-ray like you see at the airport...i don't know if they checked any of the luggage carried under the bus?
after getting back on that bus, we traveled along a semi paved road through chile...exiting chile was fine and dandy, there were a couple stalls selling snacks...(i didn't buy anything, but i presume they accepted monies from chile and argentina)...several kilometers down the road was the immigration office to argentina...since i was probably one of just a few americans coming back into argentina, i had another adventure with my visa reciprocity receipt...

this second bus took us to rio grande, where i got on my third and final bus...i think i left my hat on the second bus, boooo...this last bus took us to ushuaia, arriving 4 hours later than i had been told it would arrive,  (this didn't surprise me at all) at 2200...since it was so late, i walked to the first hostel listed in the guidebook and took a dorm bed...
ushuaia is the southernmost city in the world...fin del mundo; end of the world...it's WAY down there...(seriously, get a map out, take a look to see how far south ushuaia is located)...some people ride a bus all the way from buenos aires, which must take ages and ages and ages...

breakfast was included in the price of my hostel, it was awesome!! the best part was the egg station...i got to cook eggs howeva i wanted :) ...sunny side up, in case you were curious...
it was windy and snowy that day...ugh...not really what i wanted, but not horrid either...since it was sunday, not a lot was open...ooops...it's hard to wander around a town when the weather is driving you crazy and nothing is open except for expensive cafes...i did find an open souvenir shop, there were HEAPS of postcards, and just about any other souvenir i might possibly want...

this is a town from which soldiers headed to the islas malvinas depart, so there was a memorial dedicated to those who gave their lives during that ill fated mess...
i only wandered around until mid afternoon before calling it a day...i found a place to eat an early dinner, then hung out in the common area of the hostel...my big accomplishment was turning in laundry to the hostel...it was sooooo nice to have clean clothes again :)
the next morning i gorged on breakfast (again) and packed up my stuff...i left my pack in the hostel, then walked around town again...the weather was a lot better, there was some sun, and i was in a better mood...i stocked up on postcards, wandered around the port area, and generally enjoyed the colours of the city...

since ushuaia is bordered on one side by mountains, there is a lot of skiing...in other words, there are a lot of outdoor activity shops in town...i looked around a lot, it was soooo tempting to buy a new winter jacket, and snow pants...
i returned to the hostel and picked up my bags, then walked 2 kilometers and checked into another hotel...i wanted a room to myself for my last night in ushuaia...after checking in, i spread out postcards everywhere...i wanted to make sure everyone on my list was going to get at least two...(i know, i'm crazy)
i woke up to a hotel with no power...that wasn't terribly fun...it came back on soon enough, thank goodness...

what was not turned on was hot water in my room...i had to go to the front desk to ask for the hot water to be turned on so i could take a shower...ugh...
i used my last couple hours to walk around more, finding areas i hadn't seen...it was sunny and lovely, and i wanted as much vitamin D as i could get...the taxi to the airport cost me more than i expected, and i also had to pay a departure fee...since i'm american, i had to pay more for that fee...argh...i had to exchange some money to do that, at least i was able to do so at the blu market rate, not the official rate...i was really annoyed, and i'm sure it showed in my behaviour...i hate these surprise fees...

i had two security checks before the flight (don't know why)...the flight hurt my ears, a LOT...it's a three hour flight from ushuaia to buenos aires...
i would love to return to ushuaia, and explore more of that province of argentina...there is a (reportedly beautiful) national park close by, i want to see it...ushuaia is also where many ships heading to antarctica depart from; antarctica is definitely on my bucket list...

argentina: el chalten

el chalten is another town entirely based on tourism...it's actually located inside parque nacional los glaciares...it's on the other side of a lake from el calafate...you don't have to pay the park entrance fee when you take the bus to town, thank goodness...
i took an early bus from el calafate to el chalten, the ride was only three hours...as we approached el chalten i was stunned by the scenery...who doesn't love driving close to big mountains? beautiful...before taking us to the bus station, the bus stopped at the park office, where everyone was able to get maps and information about hiking routes in the area...

the bus then dropped us at the bus station, from which i walked down the main street of el chalten to find a place to stay...since i was visiting in the middle of winter, not much was open...i walked into one hostel, but couldn't find anyone inside...the door was unlocked, and the radio was playing, but there was no one there...strange...
the only open place i could find was almost at the end of town, which turned out to be rather convenient...i paid for a dorm bed, and ended up being the only person in the room...(one of the benefits of visiting in winter:)...the wifi signal didn't reach all the way to the bedroom, but that was okay, as there was a nice big communal room in which to spend time...

the weather was AWESOME!!! i followed my map, which showed that the start of the hike i wanted to do was at the edge of town...it was very well marked, easy to follow, full of expansive views...this hike was called the cerro fitz roy...i kept stopping for photos, there were just so many amazing views...i took a short break at a lake (totally frozen over, yahoo!! i didn't have the guts to walk out on the ice, not knowing how thick it was) to take it all in...from there i kept walking to a turnaround spot called poincenot...so many colours in the landscape, beautiful mountains, etc...it was amazing...
i had steak for dinner that night at my hostel, it wasn't great...booo...

the next morning the weather was awful...crazy windy...so windy that i had to lean forward in order to make forward progress...i was really glad i had my hat!
the hike i'd chosen for that day was called cerro torre...it would've had more fantastic views, if only everything hadn't been covered by clouds...completely covered...then the rain started...so not only did i feel as though i would be blown off the hiking trail, i was getting wet...ugh...photos were out of the question, i gave in mentally and decided to just be wet...i didn't walk the entire trail, as it became water logged and i didn't have waterproof footwear...nothing was dry...

back at the hotel i killed 2 hours by writing postcards...(i still had a lot to write!)...then i walked back to the bus station to catch my bus back to el calafate from which i'd booked another bus ride...
i wish i'd had more time in el chalten...there were so many other hikes i wanted to do, and the scenery was brilliant!!! someday i will go back!!!

 

argentina: el calafate and glaciar perito moreno

my bus from bariloche arrived in el calafate after noon...i was greeted with a lovely view of mountains all around, and great weather...awesome...
i found a place to stay, figured out what i wanted to do, and went back to the bus station to buy tickets...el calafate is down the road from parque nacional los glaciares, too far to walk...plus, the parque is rather big, it isn't possible to walk around on my own and see everything...
the buses to/from the parque were more expensive than i expected, i also bought tickets to my next two destinations...there are discounts if you book more than one set of tickets :)

i spent the next couple hours walking around el calafate, which was rather dead...apparently there is a siesta time, because nearly everything was closed until 1500 or so...i saw souvenir shops, travel agencies, restaurants, hotels, etc...nothing "local"...this town is totally dedicated to tourism...which makes sense i suppose, as it is a dry area, with gorgeous landscapes all around...i found an open ice cream shop and tried the local specialty, an ice cream made from the calafate berry...nothing wonderful, i wouldn't bother with that again...i wonder if other flavours were any good...

the next morning my bus left while it was still dark...i was not thrilled when the bus only drove a few streets, then told us all to get out and into a minivan...that was not explained when i bought my tickets...argh...what was explained is that this bus ride doesn't include anything other than transport...people on the bus still have to pay for the boat ride, and bring their own food or buy it in the cafeteria...there is a tourist spiel while everyone is on the bus, i tuned it out for the most part, since it was in spanish...the guide recognized that i didn't understand a lot of what she was saying, so she did occasionally translate a bit for me...

the bus stopped at a couple places along the way so everyone could take photos...if i had been in my own transport there were even more places i would've stopped to take photos, but hey, i'll take what i can get...i liked that the company recognizes that people want to take photos when they see something, and doing it through the window of a moving minivan just doesn't cut it...
once we entered the entrance to the parque the minivan drove a bit further, then pulled off into a parking lot...this was where we had the opportunity to take a boat tour up to the face of the glacier...

it looks big and all from just about anywhere, but as with any glacier you don't realize exactly how big it is until you get up close and personal...it's HUGE...and it moves something like 2m every day, so you can see/hear bits of ice falling off...it's impressive...and cold...and windy...everyone on the boat was taking heaps and heaps and heaps of photos...
i'm glad i had a hat with me, it was really windy and my hair went everywhere...
(i think there were a couple people on the minivan who didn't take this tour, i have no idea what they did during this time...the carpark was in the shade, so no matter what i bet they were cold)

the next stop of the bus was at the cafeteria/trail heads...i looked into the cafeteria to see if they had anything i just HAD to have, they didn't...i had thought ahead enough to bring food of my own so i didn't have to pay extortionate prices...i started off down the trails, my camera at the ready...i got to see a large piece of ice fall, and the ripples in the water...it's amazing loud, almost booming...and though i'm sure the ice is moving fast, it looks slow because it's so large...
i walked on every trail i could find...i wish i'd had another day to explore other parts of this area of the park...there are tours that allow you to go cramponing on the glacier, which would've been nifty, but i don't know if it would be worth it...maybe another time?

it wasn't terribly crowded, since the middle of winter is not high season for this area of the country...
dinner that night was at a steak restaurant, and it was awesome...cooked perfectly...i was underdressed compared to the decor and other guests, but i didn't much care...
the next morning i caught a bus to my next stop, el chalten...

argentina: RN 40

RN 40 is a national highway in argentina that runs down the western side of the country...most of the time, the highway feels as though it is in the middle of nowhere...i was on a bus for a long time, and spent a lot of time on this highway...there were no stops on the bus, this post is mostly about the pictures i took...i was on this highway as i traveled from bariloche to el calafate