Ceský Krumlov and a New Strategy

After almost a week in Praha, it was time to leave the beautiful Czech Republic and return to Austria. On my way out I stopped in Ceský Krumlov, a quaint little town with some pretty sights. I hadn't lined up a Couch Surfing host for Salzburg, and was planning on just staying in a hostel. When I got to Ceský Krumlov (I went by bus, a relatively pleasent experience), it was kind of cold and rainy, and I didn't have anywhere to store my stuff. As I wondered through this cool little town, I found my self not very interested in my surroundings. That's when it hit me. You know those people who travel around for months on end. I realized I'm not one of those people. I think three weeks of traveling is my limit, and I whould probably keep it to two at a time from now on. I was getting tired of not having somewhere to fall back to if I couldn't find a place to sleep, so I decided it was time to head to Mainz and find an apartment.

I went back to couch surfing, this time looking for hosts in Mainz. Then, I made my way to Linz, Austria and found the overnight train to Frankfurt. I just got a sitting place on the train because sleeping places are more expensive, figuring my ability to sleep anywhere would get me through the night. It turned out much better than I had anticipated. There were only three of us in the compartment, so we could fold our chairs down and lay down. So I pretty much got a sleeping place without the extra expense. I wandered around Frankfurt for a couple hours in the morning, then connected with a host here in Mainz. I've spent the past couple days wandering around Mainz, getting a feel for the place and looking for apartments. Man, and even though we had a unit on housing and stuff in German 1, I'm having a hard time searching for apartments in German. I've found one that might work, and I'm gonna go check it out tomorrow.

Now as for the new travel strategy. I still want to do some more traveling and such before Christmas, but now instead of deciding a place and time, I'm just going to pick places and have the hosts I think I'd like tell me when they could host me. We'll see how well that works. I did already get a response from a host in Zürich, so I'll be there the 16th through the 18th. I'll probably take the overnight train in and out again. That way I max my time in these destinations and do something constructive during the train ride. I've got like seven more days left on my train pass, so that's like three or four more cities at least. That seems like an atainable goal. And on the days I stay in Mainz I can do those things I need to to get settled here. It seems like it's always taken like two months or so to get settled whenever I've moved in the past, this way I can do that stuff before my schooling starts. That should make everything just run smoother. I'm pretty optimistic that this is a great plan. Now that I've cut my two months of travels into three weeks, I'm glad it worked out this way. I'm glad I spent a week in Wien and got to know the people and places there. I'm glad I spent two weeks in the Czech Republic. That was a really great experience. If I had been planning a three week trip from the beginning, I might not have gone to the Czech Republic at all, and I would have only spent like two days in Wien. So yeah, all for the best and now I try something new.