The Dog Hotel in Arogno, Switzerland

I'm not sure what I enjoyed more, being surrounded by mostly friendly dogs or the remote setting in the hills of the small Swiss town. All the leaves had previously fallen from the trees, so I would take the dogs along the leaf covered trails up the mountain multiple times a day. Besides cleaning up after them and making sure they all got fed, the rest of my time was spent sitting outside keeping them company, and allowing them to do the same for me. The property overlooked the peaceful town of Arogno, and beyond rows of ever growing foothills the white capped alps lay above everything else on the horizon, their size and stature reminding me of other ranges I've been fortunate to sit and stare at earlier in the year. Arogno is in the Italian part of Switzerland, only a few minute walk from the border. The other volunteers and I drove across the border to pick up and bring back pizzas one night, while the rest of the meals were home cooked and delicious. A few times when family or friends shared in the meals the fast Italian spoken at the table made the meal feel fully authentic.

Vienna

Arriving from Prague in the afternoon, I was only going to spend a night wandering around Vienna, then move on to Salzburg the next day. That didn't happen. Walking around Vienna at night is remarkable. The lit up buildings really do look some sort of majestic. Half the buildings in the city center were left in shadows, only adding an even more ominous feel to the old city. I really didn't do much in the few days I was there besides walk around and gawk at the buildings. I strolled lazily through a spacious park outside of the city one afternoon, which is always a good way to spend an afternoon while traveling.

And now I am in Switzerland, passing through Interlaken tonight and down to Lugano tomorrow to volunteer at a dog hotel for the upcoming week. Not too sure what to expect except plenty of canine company!

Praha

I ended up having an extra week between Berlin and when I was to arrive in Switzerland, so, grateful for my bus pass at this point, I headed for Prague.

The city has the oldest buildings I've seen so far, and the warmest colored buildings as well, some stretching back to the 1400's! Newer buildings have sprung up around the older ones, so the city feels a bit crowded in places. My favorite part of my time there was walking up to the Prague Castle, atop the hill across the river from the city center. The castle was nice but nothing too impressive, but the few of the city as the sun was setting in the afternoon was brilliant. The colors and shadows across the domes, steeples, and towers reminded me of vintage European photos I'd seen growing up. Then the walk back across Charles Bridge as night overtook the city completed the day, and my time in Prague.

The Rest of Berlin

I hadn't had plans of visiting anywhere specific in Germany prior to my trip, and still wasn't too excited once I realized my route would take me through Berlin. Then I started talking to people, it started in London and continued in every conversation along the way, people who had been to the city raved about Berlin like no other place in Europe.
The first day we wandered around town, through the old buildings and the open squares, not too sure what we were looking at. We stumbled across and explored around an independent artist co-op, Tacheles, supposedly one of the last in Europe but looking to be shut down and demolished any day.
The next day we took a free city tour around East Berlin. That's when the buildings came to life. The sequence of events in the last century alone has molded the alternative city into what it is today. Hearing the stories of the hundreds of thousands standing up in peaceful protest when others had been killed for doing the same thing just days before was quite moving. The amount of energy that filled the city with those protests is still apparent walking the streets today, only now it is freely redistributed towards causes like creativity and enjoying life.

The Berlin Zoo!

Had a day to myself when I arrived in Berlin before meeting up with friends the next morning. From the bus station I began walking across town, then began following signs towards the zoo, then spent the afternoon walking around the zoo with my big back pack and all. I know there's probably some animal rights reasons against zoos, but I really enjoy being able to sit and watch all these animals from extremely distant parts of the globe, and the ecosystems created in each exhibit and the balance of things necessary to recreate their natural habitat.