Playing Catch Up

Alright, I know I've been lazy but I'll   try to catch up. I'll do my best with details and whatnot, but it's a bit difficult and  mostly I just want to let ya'll know what I've been up to in my wanderings.

Munich Biergarten

I made it to Munich no problem and met up with Alexa and her friend Hannah, who's studying there. As it happened, Hannah's mom and aunt were also visiting, so we all ended up hanging out together.  It was really fun to have a mom around for a change, or at least one that speaks english! They kind of took me in and adopted me for a couple days and let me hang out with them, which was a lot of fun. The first day Hannah took us all to a beer garden (biergarten) where Alexa and I had no choice  but to give in and try German food (after successfully avoiding Polish food). It wasn't bad though, I've actually had a fair amount since then. What surprised me the most was the HUGE beers everyone drank, namely a liter at a time. That's a lot of beer. Like a lot. The next day Alexa left, but I went with Hannah and her family to Dachau, which I wasn't expecting to do. It was interesting, of course, and I can't believe I saw 3 concentration camps in about a week. After Dachau

Starnberg Lake

we took their rented car out to Starnberg lake for lunch, which was beautiful. Actually, the whole time I was in Munich the weather was awesome. My last day there I was on my own, and on Hannah's suggestion hopped on a train (yay eurail pass) to the mountains, a town called Garmesh Perkinascher (or something similar), which was also lovely and nice. The mountains were beautiful! I would have stayed longer but I wanted to make it back in time to see the Neue Pinakotech, which I'm glad I did, I found some amazing Monet, Sisley and Van Gogh's in there.

The mountains near Munich

The next morning the plan was to get to Frankfurt and fly from there to Scotland. I got to Frankfurt alright, but as it turns out, frankfurt has two airports and one is REALLY far away. I had lots of time but not enough to get that far. Disaster. I was stranded in Frankfurt with no plan and nowhere to go. After a couple frantic (and expensive) phone calls home, I got to the train station and figured out that my train options for the night were Brussels or Amsterdam. So, off I went to Amsterdam.
I got there and got to the hostel around 9, and wasn't really planning on doing much since it'd been a pretty difficult day, but as I unpacked, a couple other people staying in the room came in and invited me out. I figured, why not, it's not like I had anything else going on. That ended up being a lot of fun, and it was really nice to have some people to hang out with for the next couple of days. I also realized I actually knew one person living in Amsterdam, a friend of a friend I had met over winter break, so I got in touch with her and got to meet up for coffee, which was nice. I also made it to the Van Gogh museum, the Anne Frank house, and the Rijksueseum. All of them were really cool, and I'm glad I got to go. I think the Anne Frank house was my favorite, it was amazing to see it after reading and studying her for so many years in school and whatnot. The museum was really well done, too, which is always nice. In general I've found that I like going to Museums and walking around cities on my own, and meeting people to hang out with and talk to at night. Traveling alone has had it's ups and downs, but overall I think it's been way more fun. Just being able to meet people it great, and amazingly easy. It's funny how quickly travelers can get attached to one another, though. I guess since none of us have anyone else, for a short time it's like we're suddenly best friends and family. It's odd to think that I only knew some of those people for 3 days or so!
But anyways, my plan was to try and continue with my planned route and get to London and Paris, but once it became clear to me that it was definately not going to be worth all the trouble, I decided to follow a few of the people I'd met to Berlin. Everyone seemed to be moving in the same direction, which I guess makes sense because it's a much more logical route than my zigzagging!
So, once again, I hoped on a train and got to Berlin. Berlin has definitely been one of my favorite cities, dare I say, even up there with Portland and San Francisco. I also ended up staying for five nights, which is by far the longest I've been in one city, and it's been nice. I've had lots of German food and seen LOTS of street art and graffiti. There's an artists sqaut right by my hostel which is really cool to walk through, and I ended up buying a silk screened shirt and a couple post cards from one of the artists. The whole building is graffitied to death and outside they have a sculpture garden too. I also got to go to the East Side Gallery today, which is the part of the Berlin wall that's all painted. SO COOL. 'Nuff said.

East Side Gallery

Artist's Squat near my hostel

I also did take a walking tour of the city, which was great for seeing all the monuments and whatnot. I even saw the parking lot where Hitler's bunker once was, and where he committed suicide. I think my favorite part of the tour was the monument for the jews of the holocaust. It's really well done, and inspired by the Jewish cemetery in Prague, which I'd been to so that was cool too. Just in general, Berlin has such a cool atmosphere. I think I'm coming back in a few weeks with Julia, so I'm excited for that. I can't wait to see Julia tomorrow too, it's going to be fun to have a travel buddy! Like I said, traveling alone is a lot of fun, but I know Julia and I are going to have a great time. First stop, Madrid!

Let's See...

Since I last updated I've been to Prague and Krakow, Poland. Actually, I'm still in Krakow, until tomorrow when I'm flying to Muncih (eurail pass doesn't work in Poland).
So Prague was nice, but I didn't love it as much as I thought I would. It might have been the cold, rainy weather or the fact that I was gettin sick at the end, but I think it's one of those cities you have to spend more than a couple days in, you know, let it sink in more. I did really like seeing the Spanish Synagogue, though, it was gorgeous. We saw the bridge and the castle, of course, but other that that we didn't do w huge amount of other stuff. Again, partially the weather, but also, there really didn't seem to be as much sight seeing stuff there as in Budapest, or at least as much that we were interested in. And like I said, the last night I wasn't feeling  quite right, and I think I had a fever the next day. Alexa and I took it easy and mostly hung out in the hostel and tried to rest before our night train to Krakow (which turned out to be one of the most uncomfortable trains). Anyways, when we got to Krakow I was still a bit sick and Alexa wasn't feeling perfect either, plus night trains are always exhausting, so we spend the better part of the day sleeping and recovering, but eventually rallied to go see the Jewish area and then market square. They really like Pope John Paul II here, they had poster and things of him everywhere. The next day,  we had made a reservation through the hostel to go see Aushwitz-Berkenau, which was the main reason we came, and the tour was supposed to pick us up at the hostel at noon, but no one came. We asked the hostel and they called the company and apparently there was a glich in the system and the reservation was lost. At first it was looking like we might not get to go at all, and Alexa and I were REALLY REALLY mad, but the manager of the hostel got the company to have another driver come pick us up and take us on a private tour, and the hostel paid the difference! So that worked out, and our tour guide was really nice.
Going to the concentration camps was surreal.  I guess its one of those placed I never really thought I'd actually see. They were so eerily calm, and especially Berkenau, the area itself was beautiful and quiet, and almost pleasant even, which made it all the more creepy. I'm really glad I had a chance to go, although it was so odd to actually be there.

Then today, Alexa had a flight to Munich, but since I didn't know I needed to book till later, the flight she was on had gone up astronomically in price, so I booked a waaaaay cheaper one for the day after and found an airport hotel for the night. This was also an appealing plan because it gave me a chance to recover from being sick in NOT a hostel, and it's pretty relaxing. A bit strange for me to be in a hotel alone, but I suppose I should get used to traveling alone since I'll be doing more of it in London and Paris next week. Anyways, so now I'm here and planning on getting lots of sleep tonight!

Budapest

So as it happens, I have bit of free time at the moment in which I can update for you guys. This is because it is 4am in Prague. We took a night train from Budapest and arrived now. Inconvenient. We made it to the hostel but of course we don't have a room booked till rhis next night, so we're banished to the common room, where there are some other random people speaking spanish. So the plan is to wait a bit, get cleaned up, and, at a reasonable hour, go drink lots of coffee and explore for a couple hours until we can come back and nap. But in the meantime, I shall tell you about Budapest.

Budapest!

Krissy and I had sort of a long time in Budapest because towards the end we met up with Alexa, and so we stayed a day longer than we otherwise would have planned to so that she could see Budapest too.

Langos

The first afternoon that  Krissy and I arrived we just relaxed, found a pretty park and took in the city views and the pretty bridges and river and made our plans for the next day. The next day we woke up and our first stop was the really big synagogue, which is supposedly the second largest in all of Europe. That was cool and really pretty on the inside, and it was nice to get a break from all the churches. Next we headed to the central market, where we ate some hungarian food, this thing  called langos, which is fried dough with stuff on it, we had it with cheese and bacon and tomatoes. After that (and out siesta, which is becoming a habit with us) we went to the House of Terror. No, it's not a haunted house, it's a museum about the dark days of Hungarian history during WWII, and it's in the building that the Arrowcross (the Nazi organization) and later the communist rule was run from, and it had a prison basement with torture chambers and everything. Very sad and haunting, but interesting. When learning about WWII my classes had only really mentioned Hungary in passing, but really a lot went on there. We spent at least 2 hours in there, maybe more.
Later that night we climbed up to one on the monuments overlooking the river and relaxed and enjoyed the lights of city on the water.
Friday we woke up and headed to a the thermal baths, which was relaxing. I never thought I'd end up at a public Hungarian bath house. Later in the day we met up with Alexa and had dinner (goulash this time) before going out to a couple different bars one of the guys working at the hostel recommended (and later he came out with us for a bit too).
This  morning we got up and wandered around Buda castle for a bit, which had cool views, and then got on the train and ended up here in Prague. I hope no one throws me out of a window while I'm here.

Vienna

So as it turns out, I love Vienna. Like really a lot. It's really different from Italy of course, everything is neat and clean and organized and incredibly easy to firgure out. It's impossible to get lost in this city, everything is so clearly labeled all the time.
Krissy and I took an overnight train from Florence to here on Saturday night and arrived Easter morning. Of course everything was super quiet and calm, but it was nice because we were pretty sleepy. After we found the hostel and dropped off our things, we headed down to Schlosspark Schonbrunn, where we rested in the sun and spread out with our map and guide book to plan our time in Vienna. After that we went to old town Vienna, where we saw St Stephan's church, which was huge and Gothic, and St Peters, which was not huge and super Baroque. We wandered around a bit and walked through Volksgarten, another pretty park, and enjoyed the sun and flowers.
The nest day we got up and headed to the really big art musuem that I'm not even going to try to pronounce, and saw Hunters in the Snow and whatnot. Later we went to the modern art museum, but that one turned out to be a bit weird. We didn't have time to get to the Albertina or the Belevedere, and honestly didn't really figure out that those museums had a lot of stuff we'd have been interested in there until it was too late. The guide book failed us on that one. I must come back though, I want to see the Gustav Klimpt and Monets and whatnot that we missed. Maybe before I meet up with my parents when I have a few unplanned days I can come back, because I reaaaaally like it here, and I realllly want to see those museums. Hmph.

And today we saw the Shonbrunn Palace, where the Hapsburgs (specifically Maria Theresea) lived, which was cool, and spent a while hanging out in a Viennese Coffee house, which I also really enjoyed. Viennese Coffee is goood.
Anyways, I'm sad that we missed those museums, but I love Vienna. Like I said, I hope I can come back. Maybe one day I'll try to learn German, too, that could be fun.

All Packed Up

Sadly, the Sienese part of my adventure has come to an end. I'm glad the program wasn't longer, I think it was a good amount of time, but I'm still sad to leave Siena and my host family. But hey, in a few hours I'll hop on a bus to Florence, grab one last Italian dinner, and then Krissy and I are off to Vienna, Austria I'll try and post here when I can but who knows when I'll get internet.
Wish me luck!

Last Sienese Weekend

Only a few days left in Italy before the travel adventure begins! It's odd that this is the last week, but I'm also glad to get moving, because I'm getting a bit restless here. As much as I've really enjoyed being in Italy and had so much fun with my host family and learning Italian and whatnot, it's still hard to be stationary in a foreign country for so long. It's funny some of the things that you can get used to, like not being able to understand. At first it made me feel a little stupid all the time because I'm really not used to just striaghtup not being able to understand, but you get used to it and come to make peace with it. That's an aspect of reverse culture shock I'm definately anticipating: suddenly comprehending everything said and written around me automatically will be overwhelming! I think it'll be nice to be on the move because it wont feel so odd not to feel completely at home and at ease in countries when I'm only there for so long. I feel at home here in Siena in a lot of ways, of course, but there are many cultural things that I just wont be able to understand, and I'm not exactly fluent in the language (although I've certainly come a long way), so its hard to feel completely, as the Italians say, at my ease.
Anyways, my last weekend in Italy was a lot of fun. On Saturday we had our last program excursion,a trip to the beach on the Tuscan coast. The Mediterranean was lovely, of course, and it was generally a nice day relaxing in the sun. Then on Sunday a few friends and I headed to Lucca for the day, which is another small Tuscan hilltop town. It's very medieval looking, and VERY small. We rented bikes and rode the around the city walls. Super pretty and it was nice to be able to get a bit of exercise other than walking for a change! But like I said, Lucca is tiny so the entire loop around the city wall is only 3km so we did it twice in no time. Overall both days were slow and relaxing and a really pleasant way to spend our  last weekend.
And since this is the last week, it's finals, which is funny to me because usually aren't you supposed to classes first? We had classes of course, but none of them were particularly serious or rigorous, so I can't say I'm at all stressed about any finals. I had art history today, which went well, and tomorrow I have a paper due which I've already done most of, and anyways, it's not due until 4:30. It's funny how Italian professors assign things-really, there isn't much of an assignment at all. This paper was basically: write about something interesting we talked about in the class, as long as you have things to say for. It's a funny way of dong things, but maybe  that's just the American in me.
ALSO I almost forgot to mention that Monday was my last day of teaching english to the bambini. Teaching was fun and all but I'm glad it's over. I liked the kids, but coming up with a lesson plan I absolutely hated.  I'm really glad I did it, but I don't see teaching ESL anywhere in my future. But hey, the teacher gave me a giant tin egg full of Lindt chocolate, so I even got more out of it than I was expecting!
Anyways, I'm excited and nervous to get moving, but I know it'll all be a good time.

BolognaVenicePadua

This weekend was my last week of traveling before the study abroad program ends in two weeks! I managed to see three different cities though, albeit two of them I saw only briefly. We set off on Thursday afternoon to Bologna, where we had tickets to see the concert of an American band called Deer Hunter. We got to Bologna fine, and headed to our hotel, which had been booked online a few days prior. Unfortunately, when we got there the hotel had no record of our reservation, even though we had a confirmation email pulled up on an iphone and everything. It was frustrating but eventually we figured it out, and we all had to pay a bit more than we'd planned, but it worked out okay. By the time we got settled in it was late and we were hungry, and it was getting close to concert time. We hopped in a taxi and went to pizza place that had been recommened to us by the hotel. We got there and sat down, and who was sitting at the table behind us but the very band we were going to see that night! Our friend Julian, who's a really big fan, went to say hi and embarassed himself but they were pretty nice. If anyone asks, we had dinner with Deer Hunter. We had our pizza, which was very good, and then headed to the show which was a lot of fun. It had been a long time since any of us had been to a concert and we were all excited.

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The next day we got  up and headed to Venice! Walking out of the train station was an experience in itself, because no city will ever be quite like it. There's that whole no streets, only canals and boats thing for one. It's a lot of fun just to wander around, crossing bridges and enjoying the tall buildings everywhere. And the tiniest little alleyways are actually the streets you need to get anywhere. It's an adventure. Our hotel in Venice was great, pretty close to the train station and close enough to everything else. It was actually more of a bed and breakfast, a little apartment which the lady rented out rooms, and made us breakfast and just generally took very good care of us. I think my favorite thing that we did in Venice was see the Peggy Guggenheim collection the next day. For one, it was refreshing to see modern art, aka no Jesus or Mary's anywhere. It was great though, I was really excited to see Picasso, Calder, Severini, and Pollack paintings. I think my favorites were the Severini's, and if it would be easier to travel with I would have been tempted to bring home a poster of his Sea=Dancer.

We spent a lot of time in Venice just wandering around and taking things in. We also tried to go to Harry's bar one night, but it seemed to be closing right when we got there, which was took bad. Then today after checking out of the hotel we took a train to Padua to see the Scrovegni. We ended up having just enough time in Padua to see the chapel and hop right back on the train, but that was all we wanted to do anyways. And of course, it was beautiful. It's amazing that Giotto frescoed that entire space. And it was fun finding the panel that I had written a short paper on, The Last Kiss of Judas.
I'm sad to be leaving Italy in two weeks, but I'm really excited to travel, I think the time will go really fast once I'm changing cities every few days. Krissy and I got our tickets to go to Vienna as soon as the program ends, so that will be exciting!