Germany Romania-Moldova Trip 2024

Layover in Freising

I was flying back to Vancouver from Bucharest and I had a five-hour five-minute layover in Munich. Whenever possible I like to go into the cities where I have the layovers, and if I had five hours in Frankfurt, I would have gone into the city, but Munich is a different story. Munich is a little too far from the airport for that length of a layover. I waited for a moment and thought I could go in have a coffee and immediately come back, but that seemed a bit stupid, so I looked at other options and I found one 15-minutes away: Freising, Germany.

Freising is a small medieval city, founded in 739AD, apparently the oldest in Bavaria, and it’s very near to Munich airport.

I landed at about 7:15 in the morning and immediately made my way to a bus stop just outside the airport. There is a train that goes from the airport to Freising, but on this particular day or this particular time the train wasn’t a convenient option. The bus was super convenient and quick. It was just before 8:00 when I arrived in the city. It was cold and it was misty and pretty much everything was closed. I saw only one or two other people out on the streets. It felt kind of magical. The city apparently has a population of close to 50,000 but arriving in the historic centre that seems hard to believe. The centre is very medieval and picturesque.

I did a little research later and found out that over the years Freising has been at the centre of all sorts of misfortune, from being sacked during the Thirty Years’ War, to being bombed during the Second World War, to inadvertently harbouring a key member of al-Qaida. Of course, my favourite historical tidbit was that it was a site of witch hunts, during which time they executed several witches. Between 1590 And 1722, at least 47 people were executed for witchcraft in the town of Freising, most by either burning or beheading. The batch of witch trials in the 1700s were primarily against beggar children who were accused of witchcraft, several of whom were ultimately beheaded. Children. Did you know that German has a word specifically for witch trials against children? It does and it is Kinderhexenprozesse. Excellent.

Of course, I didn’t know any of this when I was in Freising that day because I picked the town and went there spontaneously. All I knew is that it was a charming little town shrouded in mist. I had a very pleasant walk around and eventually a café opened up, and I had coffee before heading back to the airport by the bus.

I would be happy to have another layover in Munich just long enough for me to visit Freising, but hopefully a little later in the day so I could see what the town is like when things are actually open, and people are about. Plus, I believe there is a museum there that focuses on the witch trials, and I would like to visit that. It was a delightful end to a wonderful trip to Romania and Moldova, and which allowed me to be able to say that I have now visited every country in Europe.

Back at the airport in Munich, they had a proper Christmas market outside, which was delightful.

It was late November, but my travels for 2024 weren’t over. As I had a Christmas trip to Cyprus coming up next.

Cyprus Christmas trip 2024 Germany

Night Lights: Overnight in Munich at Christmastime

I left Nicosia and flew out of Larnaca, Cyprus, headed home to Vancouver, but first I had a layover in Munich. I was to arrive at about 8pm and leave the next day at about 11:30am. I booked myself a night at the Wombat’s City Hostel Munich Hauptbahnhof in a six-bed girls’ dorm.

Unfortunately, my flight was delayed so I didn’t arrive in Munich until about 11:00pm. I took the S-Bahn train (line 1 and 8 run every 10 minutes or so into the city centre and the trip is about 40 minutes).

I walked out of the train station and into the night air. It was dark. It was cold. The streets were empty, but they were festive. It was beautiful to see Christmas trees and Christmas lights, and with the cold night air it felt so festive. Even the regular buildings that were not decorated were illuminated in some way and it just felt a little bit surreal. I could have taken the metro a couple of stops to get closer to my hostel, but I was so happy to be outside that I decided to walk. Everything was closed unfortunately and I saw only a few people walking around. I got to my hostel and went to my room. And forgive me as I go on a bit of a hostel rant.

Some hostels are well designed. They have dorms with soft blue lighting that won’t wake other sleepers when you come in, they have beds with curtains so that people have privacy and more darkness at night. They have lockers and cubbyholes where people put their items. This was not one of those hostels – or if they did have those things no one chose to use them as their stuff was all over the floor. I walked into the hostel dorm, and it was pitch black. There was no gentle motion light, and the only options I had was to stumble around in the dark or turn on the overhead light. I wasn’t about to turn on the overhead light and wake everyone up, so I decided to let my eyes adjust for a second and then try to make my way to my bunk bed. But because there was no place to store luggage properly, people had bags and suitcases and shoes all strewn about on the floor and I tripped over things multiple times as I tried to find my bunk. Also, trying to find your bunk in a pitch-black room that you’ve never been to before is extremely challenging. I finally found it and it was one of those ones where they don’t put the sheets on the mattress or the cover on the duvet or pillowcase and you have to do it yourself. I wasn’t about to fiddle around with that in the middle of the night on a top bunk so I just slept in my clothes on top of the plasticky mattress covered with naked duvet cover. I fell asleep quickly. Unfortunately for the people that I was sharing the room with, I wasn’t only the last person to bed, but I was the first person awake. I got up a few hours later showered and dressed and left again. I walked back to the main train station and went back to the airport. I stopped for a little breakfast on the way, but the city didn’t feel as magical as it had the night before.

If I was doing it over again, I think I would have booked a better hostel or a private room for that one night, but it’s hard to argue with the price of a hostel dorm. So, I didn’t get to do a lot in Munich on my layover, but I really enjoyed being there, even briefly. And so ended my Christmas trip to Cyprus and my final trip 2024.

I would be homebound for about two weeks and then I would be off to Miami.

Romania Romania-Moldova Trip 2024

Back in Bucharest

I flew from Chișinău, Moldova back to Bucharest, Romania early in the morning. I had already spent a day or so in Bucharest and I thought it was fine if not great, but I felt particularly optimistic as a flew in on this day because the weather had changed. I’d like to think that I can judge a city properly whatever the weather, but the truth is it does affect our perceptions. When I had been in Bucharest a few days earlier it had been windy and rainy and cold. On this day it was still cold, but it was sunny and blue skied, and my mood was elevated. Possibly also as a result of the great time that I had had in Moldova and Transnistria.

Since it was the last night of my trip, I decided that instead of staying at the hostel I had stayed at previously I would stay in a proper hotel. I stated at a Moxy Marriott. I know, I know, it’s a big, corporate chain hotel, but there wasn’t really anything else in the centre that was in my budget and looked appealing. I just wanted a little bit of comfort. And when I checked into my room there was a complimentary fruit platter and a dozen pink balloons. I know it was just corporate manipulation of me, but it was wacky and I liked it.

My objectives for this day in Bucharest were to visit an art museum or two and check out some other neighbourhoods.

I started by walking over to the National Museum of Art, which was a good proper National Museum in a gleaming white building and filled with art of various periods. It was very enjoyable.

I walked over to the Cărturești Verona, which is the sister bookstore store to the stunning Cărturești Carousel. This one is also worth a visit if you’re in the neighbourhood. It’s also charming but not grand. I saw at least a dozen things that I wanted to buy, but my backpack and budget wouldn’t allow it so I just browsed.

In my meanderings, I came across a charming little café called Mingle, which I can’t recommend highly enough. It’s a tiny little spot in a little neighbourhood with not many seats and a kind of vintage-y décor. I had a coffee and a cinnamon bun. To make it even better, across the street is lovely mural of the back of a woman’s plaited hair.

I decided to walk over to the National Museum of Contemporary Art, which was a bit of a hike, but took me past the Romanian Parliament Buildings (“the Palace of the Parliament”). I couldn’t get very close to the buildings because of the vast lawns and walls around them, but I got a good look as I walked by. The buildings are massive. It is said that they are the third largest administrative buildings in the world, which, honestly, is only marginally impressive. I mean to be the largest in the world is something, to be third largest is barely noteworthy. What is noteworthy is that this is allegedly the heaviest building in the world. Now there is a superlative worth bragging about; but I couldn’t help but think how do you know how heavy a building is? You can’t weigh the building. Are people weighing the building materials? Is this just some rough calculation after the fact? Just a bizarre bit of trivia.

The National Museum of Contemporary Art was…okay. If I had known ahead of time what it contained I probably would have skipped it because it was so out of the way. It’s not that what it had was bad, it just was surprisingly small and there wasn’t much in it that I found very interesting. The best part was on the top floor where they had all the artworks that they didn’t have on display. These artworks were in wire cages, but you could walk around and get glimpses of them. I like that part the best. As well, there was a rooftop bar which had excellent views of the city, and I happened to be there right at sunset which was nice.

I walked back to the city in the dark. Everything felt a little more romantic. I stopped in at the Pasajul Macca-Vilacrosse; a 19th century intersection of covered arcade streets lined with shops and (mostly) restaurants. Given how difficult it was to find a place to smoke cigars indoors in Bucharest, this was a perfect place. Smoking was allowed and maybe even encouraged, given the number of hookah lounges that lined the covered streets. I settled in at a table and had a hookah and a cocktail. It was a perfect place for people watching and with heaters nearby was surprisingly cozy, given that it was technically outdoors.

There was one cocktail place called The Vault which is inside a former bank vault that I really wanted to check out but I was so tired and didn’t think that I had the constitution for another cocktail, so I skipped it and went back to my hotel room. I had a good sleep but woke up at about 2:00 in the morning so that I could get to the airport for my flight back home. But first, I would have a short layover in Munich with a bit of time to explore a new city to me: Freising, Germany.

Moldova Romania-Moldova Trip 2024

More Moldova

I was back from Transnistria and on my second day exploring Chișinău. I think the capital city of Chișinău could reasonably be explored in one day, but I was happy to have two. I was able to move in a bit of a leisurely pace and go on long walks. And that’s really what I did on the second day.

*a large Gulliver’s Travels-inspired mural*

I walked over to the Ciuflea Monastery, which had three buildings, each of them beautiful, I had seen them from the bus when I went into the city, and they were noticeable because they were blue, topped with gold domes. Stunning.

On the way I enjoyed walking through the city, I always say that walking is the best way to see a city and that was certainly true for Chișinău.

I saw the big Soviet-era apartment blocks and oddly placed Soviet style artwork. On the street, sturdy women bundled up in winter coats sold bunches of flowers which were readily purchased by women passing by.

On my way back from the monastery I went to a big market: the Chișinău Central Market. It was great. Exactly what I expected and wanted. Partly indoors and partly outdoors people were selling all sorts of fruits and vegetables, meat, fish, and household items. It was a pleasure to walk around and, most importantly, I found people selling piroshkis. They are such a basic thing, but I don’t find them very often outside of places like Russia and Ukraine. My grandmother used to make potato ones and that’s always what I’m keeping an eye out for. So I got a couple from a woman selling them from a little kiosk and I was in heaven.

I went to the National Art Museum of Moldova, which was surprisingly good. The building dated from the 1930s and had a sizeable, but not overwhelming, number of artworks, paintings and sculptures, to visit. I particularly liked some of the busts and the whimsical paintings of men and women with cabbages for heads. The thing that I found incredibly awkward about visiting the art gallery was that I was the only person there when I visited and, in every room, there was an attendant observing. This made me incredibly uncomfortable. I felt like I had to linger over each work of art lest I offend them if I walked past something. And I felt like I had to nod and smile at everyone. It was a bit of an odd experience, but I enjoyed the art.

I stopped and had coffee at a few stylish cafés and continued to wander around taking pictures of the odd bit of street art or other notable sites. As much as I hate the “I heart anything” signs, but I felt like I had to take one in front of the Chișinău one.

Finally, I had heard that there was one more Lenin statue that I hadn’t seen, and it was quite a long walk through Valea Morilor Park, along a lake before following a dead-end road. It was a long and pleasant walk in the cool air. I eventually found the monument, but it wasn’t just Lenin, it was Lenin and Karl Marx and Georgi Dimitrov (the leader of the Bulgarian Communist party). What a find! It was worth the walk.

Even better, it was right outside the fenced off grounds of what appeared to be a small amusement park for children. It was closed, but some of the animatronics were still running. Is there anything creepier than a slightly disused amusement park? Maybe not. It was daytime so this wasn’t too bad, but it definitely had horror movie vibes.

*these eyes were opening and closing and moving side to side*

I rounded out the evening with dinner and a cigar on a chilly patio and a bit of work before going to bed. I had a great time in Chișinău (and in Transnistria). I don’t know that I’d make a point of revisiting the city, but I wouldn’t rule out revisiting Moldova.

Early the next morning I would fly back to Bucharest for one more day in the night before heading home.

Wandering North

Layover in Freising

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