Budapest and Vienna

BUDAPEST

So what a wonderful city!! So far so good. Upon arrival, after my 14 hour train ride, I took the bus to my wonderful hostel. It sleeps like only 15 people and is run by this cool American/Hungarian/Italian/Spanish dude. Super cool and super nice. The first day I toured around Buda by myself and saw the city’s castle, St. Mathews Church, and the citadel on Gellit Hill. I don’t remember all the information about these places but that’s okay because we can discuss in more detail when I get home. The next day I went around to see some of the Pest side with some really nice people from the hostel. I saw the Parliament building, the Basilica, the Opera House – which I’m attending tonight – and Hero’s Square and the City Park. It’s a really beautiful city here… I wish I had more to say but I’m tired and lazy. Today I took it easy and went to a huge indoor market, 2 square acres, walked around and got a good feel for the local cuisine and lots of pickled stuff… pickled peppers! I had an amazing lunch of hummus and falafel with a huge salad and gigantic glass of lemonade. Unfortunately I ran out of Hungarian money ☹. I ended up paying in euros. FOOD IS SO CHEAP. It was 6.40 euros for a hell of a lot of food. Money in da bank! That’s it… I’m sorry for skimping on the blog but I hope it’s still enjoyable even if there are no more pictures or fun commentaries. Oh yeah… I also went to an awesome Hungarian punk rock concert. It was really funny because I read about this outdoor festival with concerts every night. When I walked by it, it was just a bunch of punk ass teenagers waiting to get frisked by security to get in. I was intrigued. I couldn’t help myself so I went in. The crowed ended up being mostly converse and studded belt clad teenagers but the was really cool.

VIENNA

It’s as if the hills are alive, with the sound of… music. The city so far has not proved itself öber exciting but its pretty and the museums are out of this world. Yesterday after I arrived I spent the afternoon at the Schonbrunn Castle that used to be the palace of Maria Teresa and is where Mozart when he was 6 years old. It was beautiful because the grounds had huge and incredibly well kept gardens. Today I did stuff around the center of town/ Ring Strasse. Kivanc references everywhere!! It’s nice. Tomorrow I’m finishing up some stuff in the city center and two more museums before I catch my overnight train to Berlin. I leave at 7:58 pm and arrive at 8:01 am. I’m excited because I will meet my friend from Venice, Imke, and then meet up with Alli. She and I will be traveling together for the rest of the time.

Peace.

Super Fast and Expensive Post

In a cafe. I leave Venice in 8 hours!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh it's terrible!! Last week was great. The fam (or at least some of it) was here in Venice and although their enthusiasm was difficult to detect, they had a good time and got to see a lot of stuff and eat some pretty decent food. Tom and Jess have now moved on to Israel while I got to spend my last 36 hours in Venice locked up in my apartment writing a paper. I now only have a few hours left before I leave.

First stop BUDAPEST. Write again soon.

Who's counting down my return!? Interobang

A Milano

Provo scrivere in italiano. Ti scherzo!

Much has happened since my last post. As you can imagine, my internet situation is lacking and certainly not favorable for someone as internet dependent as myself. I cannot wait to return to the United States and my unproductive days of sitting in front of the computer for hours. That sentence contains no sarcasm.

Upon my return to the wonderful city of Venice (from Dublin) I had two days of lessons and messing around town with my friends and my teachers. I am really going to miss this city in every way. The people I have met and the friends I’ve made, from the wonderful to the freighting, and the things I have scene, from the sparkling reflection of the canals on the undersides of bridges to the sunsets of endless beauty over the Giudecca Canal seen from the Zattere. I must return. Anyway, back to the interesting stuff.

On Friday, the influx of visitors began with the Florence crew. Alli and Megan, each visiting for their third time, and Kelly for her first. ß the previous sentence is terribly structured. I am so happy when Megan and Alli return because it means that they like Venice. I LOVE IT WHEN PEOPLE LOVE VENICE, and I love it even more when people can appreciate it for what it is, more that a stop on a European Cruise. It makes me so happy to see my friends enjoying the city the way I do. With Kelly, and the other first time visitors from Paris who arrived on Saturday, I tried to show them as much that I could in the short amounts of time that they were here. That’s a hard thing to do because all traveling is done on foot. We ran around the city all day Saturday from one sight to the next. What I really mean is I dragged them around the city… but it was worth it. On Saturday night, the Florence group left and the Paris group (Josh and his four friends Kim, Jess, and Lauren) and I went out to dinner with our mutual friend from the US of A Rachel. My fellow American in Venice. On Sunday we did some other touristy things and ate dinner in my apartment. I cooked for Paris almost the exact same thing I cooked for Florence two nights earlier. With the help of my guests, both home cooked meals went smoothly. On Monday the Paris crew left to meet up with the Florence peeps in Florence while I had my last history lesson (cry) and met up with some friends that I hadn’t seen in a few weeks. For most of the rest of the week I just tried to absorb as much as I could during my last few days in Venice, had one of my final art history classes, and began working on my papers (more crying).

Now I am in Milan awaiting the arrival of Dad and Jessica for our week together in Italy. I know that new photos are long past due but I’m doing my best.

Dublin Part 2: Blue Skies and Sunshine

If you couldn't tell by the title of this post, the weather has changed significantly here in Dublin... for the better! Beautiful some might say!! I will now fill you in on what I did here since my last post/ during the past two day. [pictures will come in 2 maybe 3 days time. PLEASE BE PATIENT! (random and unnecessary overreaction but at least Josh will appreciate the parenthetical abundance)] Today I visited Malahide Castle which is about 30 min outside the city center by train. It was very cool and because the weather was so nice, the gardens and parks were also very pleasant. Not to mention the beach! I was able to walk to the coast from the train station. It was gorgeous and I imagine that for about two months out of the year (when the weather is warm) it must be even nicer. The castle was really cool as well. On the same grounds, there was a model train exhibit that I couldn't resit visiting. At first it brought back good childhood memories. Everyone remember the pretty remarkable train set my dad set up? Then it brought back horrible childhood memories. Everyone remember when my mom destroyed years of hard work in a single afternoon? But the exhibit was really cool anyway. Now I'm writing this post, will try to do some schoolwork/ leisure reading, go eat dinner, and then get ready to leave really early tomorrow morning. But I also have to tell you about yesterday!! It was definitely the best day here. First thing I did was visit the National Gallery. What an awesome museum! And they had a great restaurant with great food and great prices. Great. They had quite a collection of art from all over the world, including the Venetian School, and of course a lot of great Irish art. For those who would like more information, I bought some postcards and we can discuss it when I get back. I also went to the Guinness Storehouse. The history of that is sorta interesting, especially the fact that Mr. Guinness #1 signed a 9000 year lease on the property, but overall it was lame and stupid compared to the Jameson Distillery. I also went the the Kilmainham Gaol (Jail). This is an old prison that was used for a few hundred years up until the 1920's or 30's... I don't remember. But it's history is amazing! The tour guide was unbelievably informative about the architectural significance (pan-opticon... KK shout out), as well as the social and political significance of the prison from its creation through the Potato Famine and the Irish struggles for independence. Amazing tour! I then saw my third movie, The Other Boleyn Girl. As I'm sure you can tell, I am taking full advantage of the fact that I am in an English speaking country. It was pretty good.

That's it I guess. Tomorrow I return home to Venice to a packed schedule and lots of work.

Wish me luck with my papers :(

Dublin Part 1/ Maybe the Only Dublin Post

So I'm currently in Dublin... have been for two days. I still have tomorrow and the following day to tour about before my 6:15 am flight back to Venice Wednesday morning! It was a bad decision I know. Anyway... the weather here is shit. Worse than Binghamton and Venice combined! If you can even imagine. Yesterday I went on a tour of Trinity College and the guide, who was a student, would say "in the winter.. and April" every time he explained the time of year that has bad weather. Nonetheless it is an interesting city!!! Pictures will have to wait I guess until i get back in Venice but I will at least describe what I have been up to so far. I arrived on Friday afternoon and spent the rest of the day walking around the city trying to get to know the layout a bit and find my way from the city center back to the hostel... First of all it took over an hour and a half to get from the airport to the hostel. The first city I have visited (other than cities in Italy because that country is... unique) where the public transportation sucks. I always write about it every time i go to a new city because it is important. Here, it is terrible. I think it is because they drive on the left side of the road. I know it's normal for them but I can't help but feel that it's really stupid. Also, the tourist office gives out this map that is almost worthless. I usually have decent map reading and navigational abilities but here the maps are terrible. Not just the free one but even the ones that cost 5 or 6 euros! They don't include all the streets!! I don't care how big a city is (which Dublin is not), or how complex the street layout is (which in Dublin it is not) a city should still be able to produce a decent map!!! I mean Venice is a city with a way more complex street system AND waterway system yet the maps are still readable, not to mention I have a pocket sized map of NYC that I can keep in my wallet that is more accurate than the maps here. They should just call some cartographer from the civilized world to come to the Isle and map it out!!!! Also food is way overpriced here. Other things like clothes and furniture and whatever are cheap but yesterday I payed almost 20 bucks for a bagel and a water. Okay, enough complaining... Trinity College was very interesting and took up most of my day on Saturday. I toured part of the campus and went to the library which is super impressive and houses the Book of Kells, and ancient copy of four gospels that is really cool because of the beautiful and precise artwork that adorns the pages. From there I did a little church hopping. I saw St. Patrick's Cathedral and the Christ Church. They were both shmeh. Nothing too impressive but pretty enough I guess. OH! I've also taken advantage of the fact that I am in an English speaking country and have seen two movies. Shine a Light, the Scorsese/ Stones collaboration, and Lars and the Real Girl, the Ryan Gosling indi. Both were great! The Rolling Stones documentary was visually stunning! See this movie! And they sounded pretty good too. Way better than they did at the Super Bowl x number of years ago. The other film was pretty good. The story was funny and uplifting yet really sad and sorta sappy. It was also poorly made with multiple goofs visible on screen. I recommend it anyway. Today I started out by visiting the Dublin Castle. It was interesting but not extraordinarily beautiful or even worthwhile. I may sound like I am bad talking the city but I'm not. In terms of architecture though, everything is boring and grey. From there, I went to the one cool church i have found, the church of St. Michan. It supposedly inspired Bran Stoker to write Dracula. He is one of the many famous authors from Dublin (also a graduate from Trinity College). I learned about him and the many others when I visited the Writers Museum. That was surprisingly interesting. I wanted to purchase every book mentioned that I haven't read yet but... I didn't. Interesting fact is that the museum is in the old home of George Jameson, of Jameson's Irish Whiskey. Especially interesting because just before I went to the museum, I visited the Old Jameson Distillery. That was a very fun and interesting attraction that I highly recommend. I learned a lot about the process as well as the qualities and differences of the world's many kinds of whiskey. I also have been visiting a few beautiful gardens in the city. Somehow there are many flowers in bloom despite the terrible weather. I'm also very pleased that there is a wide variety of ethnic food available in this city :). Another post soon about the rest of my time in Dublin.

Upcoming Events

Tomorrow morning I'm leaving for Dublin. I'm sad to leave Venice even for a second!!! Then after that I will have visitors in Venice. 

Prague

I should be having my art history class right now but my teacher is late so I figured I would write some stuff about the last few days while I wait. But first a little complaining about today. The internet at the school is being repaired so I can go online unless I go to an internet café which I might do because I have important things to do online today and tomorrow!! So Prague, or Praha in Czech, was quite a wonderful city. Meg and I stayed at the Boathouse Hostel, which was outside the city center but not hard to access because the public transportation is good, even at night. It was a very cool place but I had the same problem with it that I did with the whole country. You can still smoke indoors in the Czech Republic so not only is that always strange to see but fucks me all up especially when my allergies are bothering me, which they were. So basically there was no “fresh air” not even outside because half the places that I went to see were gardens. As “Lets Go: Europe on a Budget 2008” says, most things of interest to a tourist are conveniently located in a compact area. So to summarize the sights I saw… the Prague Castle, which has an AMAZING cathedral, other churches: Tyn Church, St. Nicholas, Old Town Square and clock tower, National Theatre, blah blah blah lists are boring. One evening Meg and I saw The Taming of the Shrew at the Estates Theatre, which is where Mozart played Don Giovanni when he was in Prague. We also ate at very nice restaurants each night. This cost both of us a lot of money. I also spent a lot of money on clothes, which was incredibly stupid of me but whatever. I’m still not 100% sure how much everything cost… From now on I plan to get ripped off only in my own currency. I have just completed my lesson with my teacher, ten hours after I began writing this. In other words I am exhausted. You can use your imagination to fill in the rest with the following visual aides which include a few pictures from Italy as well.

*** very sorry that the pictures had to be in a link. i will try to get it on the same page asap but my internet availability is becoming limited so in the coming weeks posts may be infrequent :(... also without photos because they are a pain to upload***

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2118902&l=c89ed&id=8115847

During the week before I went to Prague I went to the Armenian monastery here in Venice, which is on Isola di San Lazzero. It was very interesting. The monk/guide meets the visitors at the vaporetto stop. He gives one tour a day. The day I went there were Italians, Argentineans, French, Germans, English and Armenians. He gave the six languages! This sect of the Catholic Church is renowned for its intellectual practices. Therefore there were many cool and interesting artifacts on their libraries including what is said to be the best preserved mummy in Europe. Side note- Lord Byron stayed on this island with the monks for an extended period of time while he was visiting Venice.