Berlin

June 20-21
After Salzburg, my next stop was Berlin. I like taking night trains because you don't have to waste daylight travelling. Berlin was not my favorite place. I've had a lot of great days travelling, so there was bound to be a bad one in there I suppose. Maybe if I had been in a better mood, I'd have liked Berlin more, but I wasn't. The city was very dark. The buildings are dark and the history is dark, and the neighborhood I stayed in was dark (and the hostel was the least friendly place I've stayed. Clean, safe, fine. But dark). I was in need of a day in the sun and a friendly face, and found neither on my first day there.

My second day in Berlin, I went on a free walking tour (one of the New Europe tours), which was excellent. The guide was from Australia and did a great job (this was the most English I heard in Berlin). By the end, I almost liked the city (Not enough to stay though). The history of the city is incredibly interesting and I liked seeing the places I've learned about in classes, but Berlin probably would have been better to visit with a group of people.

My favorite place in Berlin was the Jewish houlocaust memorial. Its a very simple, impersonal looking memorial of hundreds of stone blocks of varying heights, but otherwise identical, arranged in straight rows, in a plaza where the ground is full of small hills. The deeper you walk into the memorial, the taller the stones get, and the colder and more solemn it gets. It has an interesting effect of feeling confining, but also protecting. As I walked next to the blocks, I felt hidden, but as soon I crossed the next path and could see all the way to the end of the row, I would remember how open it was. Despite being able to see to the end of each row, you still lose people in the memorial. You can hear them, but can't find them. There are no faces, just large blank stones. Its a maze, but also very orderly. I thought it was very well done, it certainly made you stop and think about what it was, and why it exists. After walking through the memorial, we (the tour group) had a discussion about how we felt about the memorial and how German's acknowledge WWII history- very interesting to hear perspectives other than only American.

Perhaps I will give Berlin another chance someday, but I didn't want to stay longer this trip, so I took another night train to Vienna. On this train, I met a photographer and a sound engineer, both living in Berlin, and we had a conversation about the diffreneces in digital and analog art, and then compared other cities we've visited. People can be so interesting. This time I booked a sleeper car, and it was definitely worth it, spending all day on my feet and moving around so often does catch up with you and makes you tired eventually.

Salzburg

June 17-19

After Venezia, I took a night train to Salzburg. In my compartment was a grad student from Purdue (we talked about Ann Arbor) and a man and his daughter who are from Austria, but now living in Vancouver (so we talked about the Stanley Cup finals and the series between our teams). We also spoke in German for a bit about Austria (this was the first time I had a chance to have a German conversation in Europe). Sleeping on the train was about like sleeping on an airplane, I didn't mind too much. (I've learned to appreciate being small, it makes travel so much more comfortable). I was surprised to find out that the train arrived in Salzburg 3 hours earlier than I expected it to though. I had read the time table for the arrival time for the train's final stop (Vienna), not my final stop (Salzburg). Venice was probably about 90 degrees and sunny the day I left, Salzburg was closer to 50 and rainy. Luckily the Austrians are prepared for cold weather and have enclosed waiting rooms on train platforms, and McDonalds opens really early in the morning and has free wifi. The fleece sweatshirt I had packed, that I was tired of carrying for no reason was suddenly nice to have. Thanks mom for insisting that I bring it.

I loved Salzburg. The old town is small and the mountains are large, but both are very pretty. They do everything they can to capitalize on Mozart and the Sound of Music here (I think the hostel I stayed at was one of the only ones that doesn't show the movie daily). 

It had been awhile since I'd visited a smelly fort (sorry Dad, I haven't found wooden forts here), so I visited the castle first, Schloss Hohensalzburg, instead. Unlike the Americans and Italians, the Austrian do not charge you extra for audio tours of castles and museums (at least not anywhere I visited), they actually want you to learn something! Another place I really liked was St. Peters. The graveyard was really unique (its the inspiration for the one at the end of the Sound of Music). 

Most of the tombstones there were not actually that old. A few from the late 1800's, but many from the last 50 years. I assume it was because of destruction during WWII, but don't know for sure (I've only missed having my phone when I want to look up random facts like that and can't, then forget later). Inside, the church has 5 organs. 5! 

The views from the top of Mönchsberg are the best in the city, if you ever come here, make sure to see them. Schloss Hellbrunn was another good tour, there are trick fountains installed through out the 400 yr old gardens. (When I was travelling with the group still, nearly everyday someone would say "what do you want to do today?" "See some old stuff". I still have a hard time comprehending how old everything is here).

Now that I had left Italy and arrived in the mountains, it was time to start drinking beer instead of wine (well mostly anyway...). One evening I went to the Augustinerbräu (thanks for the recommendation Matt!) with a group of students from LSU (just in case you didn't already know, Les Miles is from Michigan). The beer garden is next to the Augustine monastery and the drinks are poured straight from the wooden barrel. I think the monastery is linked with the brewery in more than just name, but I don't know for sure. The next day I went with another roommate for a tour of the Stiegl brewery. The tour was in German and a little fast, so slightly difficult to understand, but the signs and pictures helped. In their World of Beer exhibit at the end of the tour, they have a tower of Austrian beer bottles. Its far more impressive than an Ashley's card. 

I also learned that its a good idea to drink a Pilsner after red wine, because it neutralizes the acidity in the wine. "Beer auf Wein, so soll es sein!". I've met a lot of fun people from around the world in Salzburg. The hostel had a lounge, bar and pool table that made for a great rainy night in with new friends! 

Venezia

June 15-16

In Venice, I stayed at the Hotel Primavera, just outside of the main island in Mestre. It was less than a 10 minute bus ride to town and less than half the cost of any hostel in downtown Venice (this is the most expensive city I've visited so far). The concierge informed me that I'm the first American that he's heard pronounce "gratzie" correctly. I'm quite proud of that, since we had just spent the last week trying to figure that out. Also how to respond to "prego" when someone in a store uses it to greet you. We never figured out the answer to that one.
I spent the first afternoon exploring on my own, where among other things, I discovered an impromptu concert in San Marco Square from a choir who was travelling, and a book launch party in a used book store (I love bookstores).

I ate Tiramisu next to the Grand Canal that evening in Rialto. Since it was a little late and I had enough trouble navigating Venice in the daylight, instead of walking, I took the vaporetti back to the hotel where I met my roommates.

They were two lovely girls, from London who were stopping here before visiting the Greek islands. We swapped stories and they gave me a whole list of things to do and places to go in London later. We explored the winding streets and canals together the next day and spent quite a bit of time riding around on the vaporetti (boat busses, far more economical than gondolas), and shopping. It seems like it must be a requirement that anyone who works on the vaporetti must be an attractive male around age 25. I think its a good rule.

Nearly every store in Venice sells Murano glass (made in Venice) or carnival masks of all shapes, sizes and colors.

Also made in Venice is Fragolina, a strawberry flavored wine. Strawberries are my favorite, and fragolina is delicious.

A different way to travel

After Florence, Chelsea, Gerst, Nick, and Noah headed to the Cinque Terre, and I left them and went off on my own for awhile, to Venice, Salzburg, Berlin, and Vienna. Travelling alone has been fantastic (usually), I highly recommend that everyone try it sometime. At home, I'm not so fond of being by myself for long periods of time. But travelling alone has been a lot of fun. I love my friends, but its a completely different experience when you're not around people you know and not with a big group. I have met so many more people, from all over the world. You're forced to be more outgoing if you want company, but you have a lot more freedom with your plans. I also like that on my own, I can avoid looking like a tourist sometimes. The giant backpack and camera give it away sometimes of course, but I've found that in Austria and Germany, I can blend in fairly well on the street. Also people must think that I look like I know where I'm going, as I'm often asked for directions (being lost often enough myself, that's what I look for when I decide who to ask. People with maps, cameras or shorts are usually not on that list). Not being immediately identified as American all the time has let me practice my German more too. Its amazing how quickly your language skills can improve when you are constantly surrounded by it. After getting off of the train in Austria, it was a nice surprise to be able to understand the signs and people around me again!

Downside of travelling alone? You end up with a lot more awkward self photos

Firenze

Firenze
We arrived in Florence just in time to catch the last bus to the hostel. Ostella Camerata is also outside of the city center, but only 1 bus ride away.

We arrived in the dark and if it wasn't for the other two girls we met on the bus who were also staying at Camerata, we would not have walked down the long dark road through the woods that is actually the correct road to take. The hostel is a very nice villa with fireplaces on the staircase, a painted dome in the lobby, gardens, and balconies in the bathroom. Its been nice staying a little outside of the cities, and cheaper. And this one has free breakfast (or calzones depending on who you ask).

Our first day in Firenze was a Monday, so most of the museums and such are closed. But the Duomo was open. The entire complex is actually eight buldings, but we decided to stand in the first line we saw. How lucky that this was the line for the cupola, so after more than 400 spiral stairs and narrow passage ways we got to walk along the inside edge of the dome to see the fresco (it reminded me of the Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel, but with more fire).

Then after a few more narrow passages with two way traffic, we were on the roof. Florence has quite a few buildings that tower over the rest of the city (including the bell tower, which started another conversation about how far you could throw a frisbee - would it make it to the roof of the bell tower?).

On the way down, you walk along the level of the giant stained glass windows on the dome.
While searching for lunch a group of guys yelled Go Blue to us, so we said it back, but then realized none of us were wearing Michigan gear, so how did they know where we're from? Turns out one of them recognized Nick from a class. Michigan alums really are everywhere. After lunch we went shoe shopping. I can't afford all the Italian shoes I want, but they were so tempting and playing dress up was fun. 

We also went window shopping on Ponte Vecchio. Its the only brige that survived WWII bombings. At one time, it used to be all butchers shops, but one of the Medicis did not like that, so he ordered them all the be changed to gold or silversmith shops. Its really good window shopping.

We watched most of sunset from Pilazzo Michelangelo. I also haggled the price of a purse down to 25% of the original price. I had pretty much destroyed the one I brought to Europe by putting far too much stuff in it until it ripped. We had wine and made tomato mozzerella salads that evening (basically bruchetta without the bread).

The next day we went to the Uffizzi Gallery and saw notable renaissance art like Botticelli's Birth of Venus and La Primavera, and the first painting Da Vinci painted.  Supposedly there's some famous art in the Louvre and the British Museum, but idk, most of it seems to be in Italy. What I'll remember most about Florence is probably sitting by the river at sunset just past Ponte Vecchio and reading.

La dolce vita

Eating tiramisu next to the Grand Canal in Venice

When in Rome...

When in Rome...
Rome is my favorite city on this trip so far. It has a big city energy to it (similar to the reason I love New York so much), but it still has narrow cobbled streets like a smaller town.

I also love that everywhere you look there are magnificent old buildings or arches or obelisks or statues. The tourist sites are crowded and most of the day at the Vatican I felt like I was in someones way (or actually running into people, it happened often at the Pantheon), but walking only a few blocks away from the most famous sites leads you to even better treasures.

The ceiling of the map room in the Museo Vaticani was more impressive than the Sistine Chapel (which is still impressive itself) and I though the Basilica dei Ambrogio E Carlo was just a pretty as Saint Peters Basilica (but smaller).

Gerst has been teaching us all to speak Ab, which is fun, and sometimes useful when you don't want the person next to you to understand you.

Our first stop in Rome, other than train and metro stations, was the Collesseum. Upon exiting the metro, we succeeded in perpetuating the dumb American stereotype by loudly saying "Is that the Colleseum?" while pointing purposely in the wrong direction. Sorry for that.

I realized it has been a very long time since I studied Roman history and have forgotten a lot of it. Somewhere between learning about gladiators, staging lifts, decapitating ostriches, fires, earthquakes and Nero, we lost Matt and Andy. Walking in circles and waiting by the exits proved unsuccessful, so Noah, Chelsea, Gerst, Nick and I went to the Palpatine hill, Roman Forum (which is not a bell), and Campidolio.

Then we began the trek to the hostel. We couldn't find anywhere with room for 7 on the weekend, so we stayed in dorms at a campground, Tiber, outside the city center by Prima Porta. (Travelling with 7 people also means we stop for snacks every hour and by now the rest of the group has realized I'm the slowest eater). It takes a metro, train, and bus and roughly 40 minutes to get to the campground from the Colleseum. We put our Roma passes to good use, they were worth it for 2 free attractions and transportation for 3 days. We were glad to see that Matt and Andy found their way back after being separated and stuck without a map or directions. We were also glad that the campground has a restaurant with pasta, since we never really had lunch and were all grumpy from walking and lack of food. Food makes all travel problems better.

The next day we visited the Vatican. The street vendor selling tours was "very worried for us" that we would wait for 3 hours and then not learn anything. The line for the vatican museums took less than an hour and we rented audio tours instead. The audio tours were a great way to learn more about the art we saw, and they let you actually let you see things because you aren't in the middle of a big tour group (its difficult to escape if you get stuck in one). The Sistine Chapel was nice, but the map room (frescoed maps of Italy on the walls with scenes of people painted on the ceiling) or the Rafael rooms were probably my favorite.

I appreciate frescoes more than sculptures, I like that they tell a story and are more colorful. The architecture and ceilings of the museum buildings were as impressive as the art in them. That afternoon we went to St Peters Basilica, climbed the Spanish Steps and threw coins into the Trevi fountain. 

All of these areas were beautiful, but the massive crowds kind of spoiled them a little. We also wandered into a few other churches around the city, I am in awe of all the buildings. Its interesting that over time buildings and art became more and more complex and ornate, but then have become very stylistically simple again. The best part of all the churches in Italy has been the ceilings. I wish it was appropriate to lay on the floor, becuase thats the best view. I think the mumified remains of some of the popes and bishops that are kept in glass sarcofogi in the basilicas are a little odd, but now I've seen a guy who's been dead for 600 years.

The next morning we had breakfast on the train again (at least one of our meals each day is some combination of bread, salami, cheese, bananas, yogurt, and Nutella) and went to the Pantheon, a 2000 year old temple that is somehow not in ruins. That afternoon we walked to Villa Borghese, the large park in the center of Rome. The museum we wanted to visit was sold out for the day, so while the others went to the zoo, I walked around the park and ate gelato by the lake and found an exhibit about regional Italian culture outside of the Museum of Contemporary Art, and listened to a choir that was singing during their picnic in the park.

 Music on the streets never seems to be too far away here. We finished our stay in Rome with a delicious pasta dinner before catching the train to Florence.