Vienna day 5

Today, we got an early start and walked the km to the summer palace of the Habsburgs. It is a massive garden compex with a zoo and the necessary massive building full of opulent rooms. Alex and I opted to just do the gardens, while Angela and Adam did the inside as well.

We toured the gardens for a few hours. We first got some great overall pictures from the back of the palace. Then we explored the hedgemaze, which was surprisingly well designed, making it a lot of fun. We then took pictures of the massive Neptune fountain, both from the front and through the waterfall from the back. We then trekked up to the top of the hill to see a giant monument to the Habsburg's glory. I opted to go to go to the top, while Alex decided to chill at the bottom (good for pictures!). We then headed back down the hill to a few more monuments (one was an obelisk with heiroglyphs made before they had deciphered what they meant, though that didn't stop them from claiming it told the story of the habsburgs). We then visited a couple of over hyped fountains before heading back towards the hostel.

After a quick bathroom break (free toilet at hostel), we got some more ice cream and walked to the metro stop. We then rode out to the Nashtmarkt for some last minute shopping. Alex got a bag and I got a new soccer jersey. The guy who sold me the jersey didn't have it, but he told us to wait while he checked with his dad. Turns out that his dad had a stall a couple down. So his dad came over and they told us about the grandfather who was an American Jew from Detroit making the father get the nickname "American guy" despite his lack of English speaking. We then headed back to the hostel for a couple games of Settlers before heading out for one last unsuccessful souvenir hunt. We met up with Angela and Adam before grabbing some Turkish for our last dinner in Europe! ;(

Vienna day 4

After posting yesterday, I noticed a pair of British girls struggling to figure out Settlers of Catan (my new favorite game since learning it at Rag, and the game I had beaten Alex in the night before, and had intended to do a rematch) so I coached them through a game before they naively asked me to play in the second game. Me being me, I brutally slaughtered them with ease despite their gang up against me (muhahaha). An older british gentleman then sat down to tell us all about his life, which was quite interesting, and then between the two of us, suggest the best route to experience Vienna in only 1 day. The British girls then got me to tell them all about Prague, they're next destination. So, after attempting to escape for a number of hours, I was finally able to around 3am...

I was supposed to meet up with the crew about 10, but thanks to the previous night's hijinx, didn't make it over till 11:30, much to the crew's worry, as my door was apparently locked. So Alex and I embarked on more cool shit, while Angela and Adam once again opted for a full day of lame. So they got off the metro before us at the the corner of lame street and lame avenue. Meanwhile, we went up on a giant ferris wheel (with the requisite copious picture taking). We then attempted to navigate (no street signs) towards a funky apartment complex, where each person has painted/sculpted their apartment differently. We then continued our broken navigation towards a supposed glockenspiel, grabbing some Viennese currywurst on the way. It was larger, had more curry powder, and had the ketchup on the side as compared to Berlin, overall: satisfying, but not as enjoyable as the Berliner. We never found the clock, but managed to stumble upon a number of new churches along the way(#s 83-87). We then slowly navigated over to the Stadt park for some relaxation. It was nice and quiet (though all of Vienna is surprisingly quiet) and decidedly unmetal. After so much relaxing, Alex and I agreed to head back to the hostel for a mid-afternoon nap to cope. On the way, we stopped to gorge ourselves on ice cream (only my second this trip!) After a few hours of napping/relaxing, we decided to relax some more, blogging while chit chatting with the recently less lame Amgela and Adam, whom had decided they wanted to hang out with some cool kids for a change!

Vienna day 3

After posting, we went into town to the palace and gardens area (we are staying on the western edge of the main city). We walked around to see Parliment, the Rathaus, and the palace opera house. We then wandered into the gardens next to all of that. After relaxing in the shade a bit, we headed into the palace and its treasury to check out the holy roman jewels. They were very sparkly, but dimly lit. So after playing around with the camera/ getting blinded by the bling, we walked to the other gardens on the other side of the palace. At this point, Angela and Adam wanted to go to the lame music museum, while the supercool kids (Alex and I) wanted to see some dead bodies. So we headed over to the Stefansdom in hope of checking out the catacombs. The church was open this time so we wandered around and found the catacombs, but we knew of a cheaper and better Imperial crypt nearby, so we just went there. On the way, we ran into a street performance of break dancing. After being entertained, we made it to the crypt. It was very metal. We then headed to a modern art museum we had scoped out earlier. After having our minds blown by the modernism. We then headed to meet up with Angela and Adam, stopping at a big fountain that seemed like a tribute to the Soviet liberators. We then rode the tram out to an absolutely massive cemetery which has a bunch of composers in it. We found Beethoven's grave, and took the necessary copious quantity of pictures. We then headed to the neighboring graveyard for Mozart's grave, only to discover that they had closed 20 minutes before we got there. After taking some pictures of me pretending to be angry/ breaking in, we headed back toward the hostel/ dinner/ slash!

Vienna day 2

We spent the first real day in Vienna getting used to the new town. We headed to the convienently named center of town, Stefansplatz. We went into the Stefansdom, but mass was in session so we only saw a little bit. We then checked out Mozarts house. We then meandered towards a market district, passing St Elizabeths church (next to Stefans Dom so I kept an eye out for any other family member's churches) and the imperial crypt and the end of the imperial palace. We also saw the Opera Hausa and a crazy modern art museum. We finally made it to the market, and spent a few hours wandering the many food and junk vendors set up. It then began to get stormy, so we headed back towards the metro stop, pausing to see a wedding at the giant Karlskirche. There were maybe 50 other tourists gawking at the wedding going on in the giant tourist attraction church. Anyway, we then headed back towards the hostel, stopping to pick up groceries for breakfast. We then set out on a quest to find a schnistel place that Angela had read about. After half an hour of walking, we discovered the place closed for a month while the family that runs it goes on vacation. We then wandered about for a while, and eventually settled on a bar that served schnistel. It was pretty tasty. We then settled back into the hostel for some much needed rest.

Prague into Vienna

Lets see if this works... So we woke up in Prague for some last minute sight seeing. Alex, Brent and I walked over to the battlements. It consisted of a a wall with a bunch of gates, a giant cathedral, and a graveyard with famous Czechs in it. There was also fantastic views of the river as well as of the city. We then headed back to the hostel to head out to the metro and the train. We saw Brent off at the museum metro stop, then caught the train. Alex and I ended up in the compartment without AC, and the temperature swelled bringing back memories of italy. So we made it to Vienna fine and ran into a trio of Indian fellows from the Prague hostel. They were chatting with a local Indian guy about good Indian restaurants, so we got the down low on the local scene, and decided to check one out. We checked in then quested for Indian food. After an hour of wandering we found the place. It was just as delicious as Berlin. So we concluded a good first night in Vienna

Prague Day 7

So we got ourselves up to do the churches that we had until then skipped. So we (Brenton, Alex and I) headed over to St nicks church. It was worth the few bucks that we had skimped out on before. It was seriously covered in gold and marble, from floor to ceiling. SO we gasped in awe for a while before heading to Loreta church. It was supposed to have the house of the virgin mary (which the czechs stole from nazareth?), as well as the prague sun, a fancy piece of jewellery. We werent too sure which part was the stolen house, but the jewellery was pretty impressive, very blinged out. Brenton then headed over to do Prague Castle, which we had already hit up. So now we are jsut chillin back at the hostel, doing laundry (2nd time in 24 days! we smell awesome!) and relaxing around out of the rain. Tomorrow we head to Vienna and the next hostel, so hopefully it'll have more free internet to blog with!

Prague Day 5 and 6

SO for day 5, we "planned" to go to the bone church, which is a day trip outside prague. We got all ready, then decided to pass out. A few hours later, we met an Aussie fellow, Brenton, who got us to get up and attempt to go somewhere. We walked around to another church, but this one supposedly has a good hot dog stand, so I reluctantly agreed. We made it over, but there was no hot dog stand (we had been warned that the guy runs out and then leaves for the day), so we just walked back to the same restaurant we keep eating at (3rd time) for more czech food. We rounded out the exciting night with some scrabble and the game of life.

Day 6, we actually committed to going to the bone church. Brenton tagged along, and we walked to the bus station, and managed to get a bus to Kutna Hora, and its bone church. After an hour on the bus, we made it, and the church was pretty metal (blacker than the blackest black). It was full of bones, and they were arranged into chandeliers, crests, candle sticks, and more. It was pretty cool. After snapping some inappropriate pictures with the bones, we headed to the cathedral in town, which was not as impressive as the city cathedrals, but it was a little czech town, and it was better than anything you'd find in the states. So we headed back to prague, caught some good italian food, and headed back for socializing and blogging!

Prague day 3 and 4

So we walked to a square, the last place we had yet to see in old town, which was named after a guy who's statue was there, but i cant pronounce, or remember, due to all the consonants and lack of vowels. But it was nice, especially because there were hot dog stands every 10 feet, so competition was in our favor, so i got 2 hot dogs and a coke for only a couple bucks (thats a lot of czeck money, because they inflated themselves so much). Anyway, we walked about there, then walked over to the jew town to check out the jew shops. Turns out, they sell exactly the same stuff as the non-jew shops, except they are closed on saturdays. So we then walked across the famous bridge, and checked out the famous church. Turns out, it was closed, because it was sunday, and they have sunday concerts, and we dont feel like droppin that many crowns to see the church. So we decided we had doen enough, and headed back to the big supermarket, and made some pasta for the cheap (a bag of pasta costs like 30 cents)

The next day, we decided to see the famous church we missed, and the castle, which also looks like a big church (did i mention they like churches here?). So we started off climbing the mountain to get to the castle. The castle was nice, and had a giant church inside. Unfortunately, they wanted us to pay to take pictures inside the buildings, so we didnt, and took pictures when they werent looking. To be honest, the czecks tried a lot of things, but i had seen better examples in the other countries of pretty much the same things. SO i'd say, it wasnt worth the extra crowns. We then say a little medieval street, which had lots of weapons and a crossbow range you could shoot at (it cost extra of course). So Alex and Adam forked over the crowns for it (i've shot better crossbows at rag, so i was happy to hold onto my crowns). Anyway, we tehn went and saw the church, but they wanted money to let you in, so we sent in a couple and they took pictures for the rest of us. We then went to another church that we wanted to see, but that one was closed on mondays (i'm beginning to see a pattern...).

So far, Prague is pretty, but i think nickel and diming has caused their inflation, and I've seen better in other places, or maybe i've just been touring churches for too many days in a row (im probably at around 100 churches visited...) So today, we are seeing a church.... but its supposedly full of bones, so thats a nice change of pace!

Pague Day 1 and 2

I guess i didnt realize that those signs deleted the word, but the people were shouting Accomadations!. Anyway, after i blogged, we walked around to get a feel for the area. We are staying in new town (literally Praha 2). So the currency here is like 15 czeck crowns for 1 dollar, so we had to get used to the crazy conversion rates. Anyway, we ended up just finding a grocery store and getting food then headed back for the night, nothing too exciting.

Day 2 featured lots of walking. We walked to old town (Praha 1), then walked along the river, saw some fancy bridge, and lots of buildings covered in gold relief, and about 2 churches per block the whole time. We then headed over to the jewish quarter of old praha (literally called jew town). There, churches were only 1 for every 2 blocks, with a synagogue every block! (gasp) But it was saturday, so all the jew shops were closed. So we are going to stop by there again today to see what the jew town has to offer. Anyway, we continued walking, seeing lots more pretty buildings, and eventually made it back to the hostel after 10 hours of walking, great fun! (but not for my aching feet). SO we plan on doing...more walking today, but it is noon and we havent left yet, so we cant do that much walking today!

Berlin Day 5 and into Prague

So day 5 began with the loss of a good friend, for Mark had to fly home. We then lazily got started, leaving the hostel around 1pm (gasp!). We headed to teh museum district to see a few museums. We started with the Pergamonmuseum, whihc was dominated by a Babylonian exhibit. It had reality, and it had myth. This exhibit accounted for about 90 percent of the museum.

After 6 hours there, we decided to skip the rest of the museums and go to get some food. Alex and I grabbed more currywurst (total of 8 times!), while Angela and Adam got turkish. We then walked to the berlin jewish temple, and a hippy art house, then decided to head back to the hostel for our last night in berlin.

The next orning, we boarded the train for Prague. We then got into Praha (czech for Prague). After braving the army of people shouting <> (these keyboards dont have quotes), we made it to our hostel, and checked in, and now we are updating blogs!

Berlin Day 3 and 4

So on day 3, we decided to head to the Berlin Zoo. To put this zoo into persepective, think the national zoo in dc, times 3 (BIG!). So we walk in through the gates, then walk to the elephants that are right there, and immediately, Angela and Adam run off. So we attempted to trace their tracks, looking at all the animals on the way, but no luck. So we continued to walk around the park, in a very meanering way due to the maps costing 5 euro (we took a picture of the displayed map instead). After seeing many sleepy and/or chilling animals, we heaed to the entrance a little after 5 (the zoo closed at 6:30). We waited and people watched, and then they eventually showed up. After eating more delicious currywurst, we headed back to the room for an early night, becuse we knew that the next day would be a long one...

We started off day 4 with a metro trip to the brandenburg gate (the big one in berlin, apparently there are a bunch of them with the brandenburg name). It was big, and next to it was the American embassy, so i got a picture with the American flag claiming the gate. Next to the embassy was the duetsche bank hq, which was designed by the guy who did the gugenheim in bilbao spain. It as crazy looking. We then walked over to a memorial to murdered jews, which was a bunch of blocks alligned to produce straight lines, so we played hide and go seek (not the most appropriate thing to do, bu it was fun. We then headed to the Reichstag, their congress. The line to go into it was really long, so we skipped going in and went to a currywurst stand called wurst :-) (really, with an emote). We then walked to the natural history museum, which was also nice. Halfway over, it started to rain, so we tried and wait it out a little beforemeeting angela and adam for dinner. Before e knew it, the museum was closed and we were locked inside! (more like they had just opened the main entrance, and then realiyeed we were in a little picnic room listening to music). So after leaving the museum, we met up for dinner (awesome german food!), before heading back to the room to get ready for going to a berlin club. We managed to get there at midnight, right when the club was picking up. We explored the rooms, then ended up in the techno room. Mark hopped up on the stage in front of the DJ with 10 other people and danced his ass off. After a few hours of the floor quaking and the air burning, we were getting burnt out, so we attempted to ride the metro home, but it stopped running (damn wednesday night) so we took a mercedes taxi home (they are all mercedes). Thus ending an awesome day!

Berlin Day 2

We started off by heading to the Alexanderplaty to see the central buldings. A giant radio/tv tower, an old church, a neptune fountain, and a giant dome church. We got to go to the top of the dome, but then my fear of heights kicked in and i ran back down after only 1 picture. We then went to the bear pits (yes, more bear pits). This time there were 2 bears, and we were really close (like 5 feet instead of 15 feet in bern). So I got more bear pictures.

We then hopped back on the s bahn and headed to the secret communist prison. It was kinda depressing. We then went to a 1.3 km section of the wall that was all painted. We saw teenage mutant ninja turtles (awesome). We then headed back towards our hostel, but stoppe at one stop to eat at an indian place we heard was good. It turns out, it was good, and still is, sitting in my belly. Yummy. Wel, sorry for the short post, but i got to get going for the day as everyone is waiting, peering over my shoulder!

Fussen and Munich day 3 and night train to Berlin

Day 2 in Munich was a day trip about 2 hours south to a town on the ege of the alps called fussen. Its famous for having a fairy tale castle. So we did the hike up the mountain to it, then got to take some pictures and did te tour. The guy who built it seemed pretty crazy, but it was seriousl like a fairy tale castle.

After taking the train back to Munich, we decided to hit up the Hofbrauhaus, which is the famous big brew house there. It was crazy packed, and full of beer and polka. We managed to find a table on the second floor (of three), and ended up with a crazy waiter. After much craziness and many liters of beer, it was more staggering back to the hostel, my favy!

Day 3 in Munich was started with a subway trip to the BMW Museum/HQ. It was super clean and futuristic. We say all the highend cars, and did much oggling. We even saw people test driving cars inside of the showroom, to gie you an idea for how large the single roomed building was. I got lots of pictures, so you´ll see what I mean.

We then hopped back on the subway to the Enlischergartens, a big park with a pagoa nd a japanesse tea house. We walked around one half when it started to rain, so we headed back into town for some lunch. Little did we know that we happened down the Rodeo Drive of Munich, full of high end retail shops. So after waiting it out, we headed back into the city center to pick up some cheap food.

We then walked to the Residencemuseum. This is where the rulers of Bavaria had their city palace for hundreds of years, so it was basically thee most blinged out house I have ever seen. There were rooms made out of gold, like the entireceiling, with the walls all marble and it went on and on and on. Eventually, we ran out of time, because we had to meet up for dinner with the others, so we tried to find our way out by backtracking a little, much to the dissatifaction of the many gaurds who wanted us to see the whole thing.

We were meeting up in the main city center, but what we hadnt planned on was that there was a Gay Parade/PARTY in the center of the city. So we eventually found the others, then decided to enjoy the free outdoor concert they were throwing. Some of the acts were good, some not, but it was all a good time. We then grabbed our bags from the hosel and boarded the night train to Berlin.

After a long night for myself (I had the hardest seat on the train in my opinion), we made it to Berlin, an navigated to the hostel. After the hostel owners called up their english speaking buddy, we checked in successfully, and Mark, Alex and I took a nap while Angela and Adam went to see some of the city. We then met up for dinner (curry wurst is my new favorite fast foo item), then checked out checkpoint charlie. After roaming he museum for a few hours, we headed back to the hostel, so that i can finally update the blog (hurray)!

Freiberg Day 2, and Into Munich

So after a night partying with the wine, we decided to sleep in till noon. Then we leisurely made our way to a pizzeria we spied earlier that had a cheap pizza special, a couple euro for a whole pizza. So we gorged ourselves, then explored the shops. Mark was on a quest for a cherry brandy, kirchwasser, that you cant get in the US. After going in a bunch of shops, we got some, and the owner directed us to a good place for authentic black forest cake, which also happened to have kirchwasser in it. So after perusing shops all day, and visiting a park for a nap, we concluded a lazy day with a bottle of wine that we bought from the festival and a million games of pool.


The next day, we set out early to walk to the train station to Munich. After many uneventful hours on trains, we made it. After meeting up with the other two members of the group, we planned out dinner, then split up (again). We checked into our hostel, then walked to the city center to get lots of pictures, and look around. At dinner, Adam, Mark and I each got liters of beer, and after much sausage, we decided to chitchat around a bit. Turns out in Germany, waiters dont approach you unless you initiate, so we were talking a long time without interruption. We then decided to call it a night, and walked back to the hostel, and now here I am, drunk typing my latest tale of exploits. So its my turn to sleep!

Freiberg Day 1

So we arrived in Germany in the city of Freiberg, which is the main city of the Black Forest. After getting lost a little, we found the hostel. It´s a super-hippy place. Like imagine all the hippythings you can think of, and you have this hostel. But its coool, cuz like everything is free, man. Alright, enough hippy trashing, but they are really nice. The one surprising thing is the space age showers. Its like a huge steel tube, with a door on rollers. Just a little weird, but it works great.

Anyway, Freiberg is a city as well. (Gasp!) It is old, so it has a lot of the same medieval stuff as Bern, the gothic cathedral, the city gates, the narrow roads. We walked to the top of a hill above our hostel to get a good view of the city. 500 steps later, we were really high up and my uneasiness of heights started to kick in, so i took some quick pictures and ran back down. But it was a good view none-the-less. While up there, we spied a festival by the main cathedral, and decided to check it out. Turns out that it was the last day of a wine festival, and that freiberg is the middle of germany´s wine producing region. Unfortunately, it was about to rain, so everything was closed up. So we ran and found a brauhaus (brewhouse) and settled in for lunch out of the rain. We got some very typical german food (wurst and kraut), and i decided i couldnt be in gremany without some beer, so i got what i thought would be a normal size beer, but turned out to be a huge one, with higher alcoholic content than in the states. You couldnt taste the alcohol, and i honestly have to say it was the best beer i´ve ever had. Afterwards, we were all full and getting sleepy, so we headed back to the hostel for a siesta.

After a few hours of napping, we headed back out. We thought the wine festival might be up because the rain had stopped, and we were right. We picked a random stall, and the wine flowed like water. All of the wines we tried were good (between the 3 of us, we tried something like 10 different wines, not including repeats) Many glasses and a bottle later, we decided to head back (more like stagger back for me) to the hostel for some much needed rest.

Now we just woke up, hangover-free I´m glad to report. And we´re going to stroll through town some more (laying of the hiking I hope). So goodbye from Germany for now!

Day in Bern

So we woke up around 9 (which is kinda late for us :( ), just in time to catch the tail end of the free breakfast, then headed out into the old part of the city. We are staying right behind the parliment building so we tried to see that first. As we were walking around it, we noticed someone had graffitied a penis onto the parliment, so we figured the central government must not get respect. When we got to the front, we saw it was closed for renovations... so we walked across the street and found a farmer's market and an old city gate. So we started walking down marketstrasse, which had a colored statue with lots of gold every 20 feet, and everywhere there were bears (the flag of bern has a bear on it as well). Along the way, we found Einstein house, a place where he lived when he wrote his theory of realitivity, and is now a museum.

We then walked to the end of the street to find the BEAR PITS!!! We then looked in to see 1 bear between 2 pits, and his name just happned to be Pedro, and he was sleeping when we arrived. So we then started walkign towards the big gothic cathedral that is famous in bern. It proved to be very massive, with some great stained glas windows. One had a skeleton in each panel, doing crazy things like taking off the popes hat, much to the pope's suprise. So then we walked down to the end of the street, and turned to walk down the 3rd main street in old bern (there are three total). Apparently, this is the bad part of old town, cuz it was full of porn stores and lots of bars and seedy looking people. So we hurried through, and ent back to the marketstrasse to look for a place for lunch. We happened upon a mcdonalds, and checked the prices, 11 franks for a big mac (which is around $11). So we instead got sandwiches in a grocery store, then went to starbucks to chill. We tehn realiyed a venti (large) drink was 8.50 franks! so we ate and chilled there coffeeless. We then hit up the grocery store to pick up some food for tomorrow and headed back to do laundry, which took forever, thanks to the machines being in some eastern european language that not even the employees could read... So tomorrow we are leaving bern for feiberg in germany! Until then.

Gimmelwald and into Bern

So we woke up in Interlaken, and then hopped on the train/bus/cable car to Gimmelwald and the Mountain Hostel. It's halfway up the mountain, and offered amazing hiking. On day 1, we hiked to a glacier, and i took a quick shower in a snow melt waterfall (ie jumped into it), then hit mark with a glacier (in ball form). We then looked at the map, and saw a path that would take us to another place we wanted to go. After 2 hours of nothing but uphill climb, we looked up and saw the top of the mountain we were staying on, which happened to be the one that they shot the terrible james bond movie with george lasenby... But anyway, we decided the map sucked, and our legs were killing us, so we went back down and back to the hostel. That night, we met up with the others (3 of us hiked, the other 2 did the entire hike to the peak, and left before we arrived) and did swiss fondue, which was made from cheese in town. we then crashed into bed.

On day 2, we decided to hike to the other place directly from the hostel, which was not too bad. We hiked to a great waterfall and took pictures, then it started to rain, so we decided to head back. About halfway, we saw a little hiker break hut with a roof, and stopped in, and a few others were in there. While we were waiting out the storm, a cloud started coming into the hut through the window. We started joking about the fog movie, and all of a sudden the fog stopped, so we can only assume it got scared cuz we were onto it. We then started hiking down the fnal hill, when another cloud charged at us (we were kinda high up). We then were taking pictures all over while we were in the cloud. We tehn made it back, but it started storming, so we just huddled up in the hostel until our clothes dried. After a few hours we took the cable car to the bus o the tain back to interlaken, to take a train into bern, which went off without any hitches. Now we are hanging out in the hostel there. So we'll see what we have the energy for tomorrow!

Cinque Terre day 2 and into Switzerland

So cinque terre is a nice beach resort type group of 5 villages on the italian riviera. And it boasts spectacular hiking, so we decide to hike to a monastary overlooking the whole thing. The guide says 15min, but it ended up being a 75min stair climb, but the views were awesome, and we stopped halfway up and nice cliffside cafe for lunch. the hike down was the easy part, as we found a better route from the top.

We then decided to take the 2 easy pathes between cities, about 2 hours of great views. We then took the train over the hard parts, to the last town, which was like a mini-miami. We sampled more of the great local wine over dinner, then headed back to our rooms.

The next morning we woke up eary and got on a couple trains to take us into the Alps (including the train stopping and kicking everyone off onto another train midway to genoa...). The alps are amazing. Today we took a ferry from spiez to interlocken, were we are spending the night tonight before heading into the alps for more hiking tomorrow. Its a picturesque swiss town inbetween two big lakes. Full of great views... Its also cool, so im not sweating my ass off!

Florence to Cinque Terre

So we wake up the next day, only to notice that Mark had left the Eurail pass in his book, in the first station in florence. So we hastily gather up and check out, then run over to the bus, thinking it would take us back. We quickly realized that the bus took a very scenic route around florence, so we ended up getting a good tour of florence from the bus, extended by the driver's mid route smoke break...

We finally got back to the original station, and the book was not where he left it, with the pass inside. So we got in line to see the ticket guy about the lost and found, and two poeple ahead, the ticket guy jumps up and starts screaming, then closes the ticket office. SO then we ran into him, and he says it all gets sent back to the main station, by our hostile. So we hop on the bus again, and get back to the station, to run around trying to find the lost and found in the sation, only to have people refering us to each other. So to the eurail office in station(which they fortunatey had) and Mark had insurance, so he got the pass replaced. All this while we keep asking about our reservation to go to the next town, which was vague, but everyone said it was fine. So we then got on the train, and when the ticket guy checked it, he said we had to have it validated before boarding, and fined us for it (and we believe pocketed the money). At this point we were glad to be out of florence.

We then got into cinque terre fine, then got into our room with a spectacular view. then managed to find the 5th member of our party fine.

Rome Day 2 and Florence

I suppose I forgot the funny things we noticed in the last entry. One is the businessmen on scooters, with their ties flappin in the wind everywhere, a they were evrywhere. Also, in the Vatican, 50% of the portraits of popes featured them pointing at a map and then staring off into the distance and pointing off, it was pretty funny to us. We also took a wrong turn at one of the Vatican exits, and ended up walking around the entire country.

Anyway, back to the trip, so on day two we went to the old Roman ruins. We started by circumnavigating the circu maximus, then we walked to the collesuem, and circumnavigated that. Then we head to the palatine hill, which had great views, plus all the old forums, that the emperoros built to make themselves look good, and we almost circumnavigated that, but had to run to catch our train to florence.

We made our train fine, but thats when things started to go wrong. At the train station in florence, a couple of Mark's friends were supposed to meet us (who I will later continue on with), but they were a no-show, so we waited for a bus to the hostel. First, we couldnt find a ticket for the bus, and we were worryied about not having one and getting caught (the italians had been pretty good about checking to this point). About midway through the route, the bus stops, and the driver shouts something in italian, and everyone jumped off the bus and got onto another one with lots of angry gesturing. So we hopped onto teh next bus and went on. I noticed the stop we were supposed to get off at, but Mark thought it was another one due to the directions he had. So we missed the stop, but got off at the next one, that was only around the corner. So then we walk to the hostel, to find out that Mark's credit card wasnt working in Europe, so they cancelled the reservation, and had no vacancies... but the friends were there, and the hostel had another place a couple of dorrs down, so we stayed there. Before going to bed, we got some more real italian food and tried some gelato.

We're alive!

So we made it to Rome about 9am, then trekked a few miles through the airport to get our passport glanced at, then another quarter mile to the baggage claim, and then another half mile to the train into the city. The theme of Rome seems to be everything is built around stuff, so you have to walk extra far. The central train station requires 5 escalators and 2 stairways to get to the subway...

Other than that, we successfully found our hostel, and dropped off our bags, then jumped on the metro to the vatican. We did all the vatican museums, and st. peter's square and his basillica. Then we realized we hadn't slept in 30 hours or so, so we headed back and passed out.

End day 1 in Europe