Bavarian Alps

I wanted to go deep into the Bavarian Alps. So, I took a train too Berchtesgaden which is very close to Austria. Along the way you can see the typical bavarian "gingerbread" houses scattered through out the green countryside. I was mighty impressed with how strong the the architectual controls were to keep even new barns and houses to the bavarian style of architecture. However, after seeing one building after another, you did get tired of seeing the same white stucco walls, pitched clay tile roves, and decroative balconies. Can there not at least be one house that looks different!?

The night I arrived I met some friendly Germans. They invited me on a hike the next day which was fantastic. There lots of views into the surrounding valleys. At the highest point we had lunch and there was a group holding church. We ending up going for some applestruddle afterwards.

It is funny how there are similar issues in every country. From the conversation I had with my German friends, I guess many Bavarians are keen on seperating from the rest of Germany. Kind of reminds me of Scotland or Quebec.

The following day was rainy so I could not go to the Eagle's Nest (Hitler's Bavarian guest house) or Lake Konigsee. Instead I went to a museum about the Obersalzberg which Hitler had built as a retreat. It was an extremly in depth museum and even included a tour of his former bunker. It was also interesting seeing WWII from a German perspective. They did not try and gloss over anything.

I would like to say that Germans are really friendly. There was of course the example above. Another is the first day I arrived in Munich and was taking the train from the airport. A German girl struck up a conversation with me after seeing that I was reading Lonely Planet. Then, back in Berchtesgaden, an older fellow and his son helped me with a phone call to a German relative.

As I was walking around Germany, I found it really had to tell who was German and who was not. I was thinking that there would be a certain look or style but I could not see anything. My Australian friend agreed with me on this. On the flip side, many people would start speaking German with me. To bad my vocabular was so limited but it was a nice compliment. I guess this is one of the few countries where I look like the locals (as some have said).

Disneyland...I mean Castle Neuschwanstein

After sometime in Munich I headed for Castle Neuschwanstein in the Bavarian Alps. This castle was supposively the one that Disney based the design of his own on. Ironically, the Bavarian King, Ludwig II, was also trying to live out a fantasy with the contstruction of Neuschwanstein. He wanted a fairytale castle and he had a theatre set designer to come up with the design. The King only lived there a total of 170 days before being declared insane and removed from the thrown. The castle is very stunning but a little over the top considering that this King seemed to be mostly a figure head. The surrounding area is beautiful with lakes, trees, and waterfalls.

I also had a chance to see the castle that Ludwig had visit as his a boy with the rest of the royal family. It was smaller but I appreciated it more. You could really see where Ludwig got his ideas as the walls were painted with historic battles and fairytail stories.

I am sooo glad I went to see the place before prime tourist seaon. It was the first tourist site that I have seen where you are given a number and you have to wait until it is called . Once again, lots of American tourists. Where they expecting Mickey Mouse?

Munich and Beer

Started out in Munich and stayed there for a couple of days. This is the home of Octoberfest where you can still find a few beer gardens and brew houses outside the festival dates. I got an introduction of the city through a bike tour. Afterwards was a horrible pub crawl that took you to everthing (American bar, Irish pub, hostel bar) but german brew houses. Fortunately, met some cool people through the tour including an Australian and some planners from Waterloo who had just finished at Oxford! Petite Monde!

Munich really mixes things up. There are a couple grand boulevards, churches, palaces, and squares built by the former bavarian kings. More modern buildings can be found outside the city walls. Bike paths weave through the city and along the streets. The transit system includes trains, subways, street cars, and buses. There is a large park sytems which includes the English Gardens.

The English Gardens is supposed to be bigger than Central Park and has lots of character. There is this canal that goes through the park and creates a strong enough current in one section that people surf on it! In the centre is a large beer garden. And best (or worst of all, depending on who you see) there are areas where running around nude is considered fine.

While Munich was nice the level of tourist activity was ridiculous. I could not believe how many Americans there were! You just could not get away from them!

Jet lagged in England

Back in England after about 9 months. It is a wierd feeling being back. It feels like I have been away but everything is so familar. Topped up my Oyster card (underground pass), got my train tickets from the fast ticket booth, bought one of those packaged sandwiches, grabbed a pint at a pub...yeah, I understand the UK game. Unfortunately, my mobile (not cell) is locked so I cannot get in touch with old friends till I get that fixed.

York is looking wonderful as ever. Walked from my hostel along the river. The place smelled so nice and everything is green. The old buildings are still amazing to look at. I hope I can get a job back here after my travels. Well, I need to sleep...will tell you all more later.

Sustainability

My one friend prophesied that I would come home with from Ghana with a new found awareness of how unsustainable Canada is. Well, I have come home and I have to say that I have mixed feelings. Let me illustrate:

Ghanaians do not treat their environment very well. People tend to throw their trash anywhere and they almost seem to not feel guilty about it. You will often see informal garbage dumps created on the most sensitive land such as the banks of streams or in forests. There is a considerable amount of deforestation as natural habitat is converted to farmland. Some will even burn the bush to flush out wild game. A variety of older vehicles can be found on the road that produces more emissions then newer models.

Where Ghanaians do achieve some sense of sustainability (and probably allows 20 million people to survive in a country less than the size of Alberta) is in their limited use of resources. Here are a few points

• The clothes they buy are often second hand from some developed country.
• To get around, people will usually share a private vehicle to their destination and in turn use less fuel per person.
• People simple use less electricity because of the limited supply of in the country.
• It is actually cost effective to fix broken items rather than throwing them out because labour is so cheap. To illustrate, when my electric kettle died I was thinking that maybe I should go and buy a new $20 item. However, I took a chance and went to see if I could get it fixed at the local electric store. I left it there and returned to find that it was fixed for a total fee of $1.
• They use very little water for their domestic duties. For example, I estimate that I used approximately 60 litres of water a day while in Ghana (that is 30 litres for a bucket shower and washing, 24 litres flushing a toilet twice, 3 litres for drinking, and 3 litres thrown in for miscellaneous such as laundry). Now in Canada we use 335 litres per day!
• They are continually fixing their old vehicles rather than buying new ones.
• For those who live in villages, a lot of their building material comes from the land they live upon; wood for cooking and building homes, clay for walls, thatch for roofs, water from a well or creek, food from their farm and grazing animals.
• Pop and beer bottles are expected to be returned to the vendor.
• There is very little industrialisation

So, sure, Ghanaians are overall more sustainable then we are, even will considering how they use their land. The question one should ask though is, “for how long?” I say this because most of the Ghanaians I met want the lifestyle of the west. They want to buy fancy cell phones, new cars, new clothes, computers, digital cameras, etc. They want power to be available everyday. They want paved roads, clean water, schools, and health care. They want their country to be “modern”. And if you read such books as The End of Poverty: How We Can Make it Happen in Our Lifetime this may actually be achievable.

Great right? Well, one has to consider that if everyone lived like we did in Canada, we would need a few more planet Earths. We drive in our individual cars, we buy products with layers of packaging, our power is produced by the likes of coal, natural gas and nuclear energy, we are continual expanding our communities and destroying habitat, etc, etc. I just do not think that there are enough resources to sustain a western lifestyle for the entire world.

So what do we say to Ghana? “Sorry mate but you will have to live in the Stone Age; there are just not enough resources to go around”. I think that would be rather selfish, to say the least. However, some countries, China and the US in particular, are working to make that happen by insuring that the world’s resources all flow to them.

Alternatively, I personally believe that the civilisations of this world are going to have to find a means to “meet in the middle” if everyone is going to be able to enjoy a healthy and fruitful life with out completely destroying the planet. What I mean is that while developing countries become more modern, and produce more pollution in the process, developed countries such as Canada are going to have to cut down on the amount of resources they use. Hopefully, this will lead to a point where all the countries of the world achieve a balanced level of both development and sustainability.

How will this happen in Canada? Well, I do not think that we have to go back to living on the family farm. Nevertheless, we may have to make some significant changes in our lifestyle by simple learning how to live with less. This means less electricity, less water, less fuel, and less junk. This may be achieved through technology advances, adopting more sustainable modes of transportation and energy production, by building sustainable communities, etc. However, it may entail just buying fewer things (wild idea I know).

My point in all this is that the development of a country also has to be considered in the context of sustainability. And not only the sustainability of one particular country but the entire world. We are all in this together.