"Czech"ing out Prague (Sorry had to do it)

It took us about 2 hours longer then expected because the trains we were on kept breaking down or people threw up on them so it was a relief when we finally got there.

Pedestrians ALWAYS have the right of way no matter what the situation

When we got to our hostel in Prague it looked a little run down which made me nervous to see the room. When I booked it I told them to give us the cheapest beds they had, however it never occurred to me they could get 25 beds into one room. The best part about it was that it was on the top floor of the 5 story building that didn’t have an elevator. So by the time we got to the top with our packs we already had a little sweat going and then we walk into the room which they kept a nice 85 degrees or so. They had single beds and bunk beds scattered all around the wall with the lockers located in the middle. After about 5 minutes of punching my bag into the locker we headed back downstairs to see if we could cancel our remaining 2 nights. He let us do so but after checking out some other hostels and talking to the guy we could upgrade for about 3 euro to a six bed that didn’t have anyone in it. This was probably the smartest move we made of the trip thus far considering no one else came in for the other 2 nights so we had the room to ourselves our entire stay.

After our sleeping arrangements were done we got down to the real reason we were in Prague, boozin.  The guy at the hostel recommended a few bars and so we headed out. On the way we walked by a Jack Rabbit Slims (which looked way to classy) and a Big Lebowski bar (which was a hole).  We missed our turn and ended up in the Old Town Center which is crowded with people trying to sell you drugs (my favorite one was the guy that asked if “we wanted some ice cream for the nose”). At the bar we saw some people from our hostel (2 from England, 2 from the Netherlands) and began talking to them for a while until we realized when they just said they just graduated they meant high school. We headed out to this other bar that is the biggest in Europe at 5 stories. When we got there though they were charging a cover of 6 euros and heard it wasn’t all that great and sounded pretty dead so we decided to just walk the town a little more. We snagged some good night pics and by that time it was approaching 2 AM so decided to head back.

Tyn Church

Prague Castle

Notice the 4th one down.

The next day we decided to take the sub rather than walk all the way to the city center. As Jeff was waiting for me to buy my ticket he was checking out their brochures and one of them was 10 rules of riding an escalator. After getting my ticket and brushing up on our escalator etiquette we were ready to go. Once we got into town we were once again bombarded by drug dealers that literally stand within 5 feet of each other and as soon as you tell one guy no the next guy has already started asking you. As we completed our tour of the square we headed to the Jewish quarter. The biggest site there was the Jewish cemetery in which they were only allotted a small plot of land to bury their dead and did so four about 300 years so there is just tombstones stacked together. The best part about it is that you had to pay a ticket (not a fine)  of about 2 euros to take a picture. Naturally we said screw that and went black ops on their asses.

Some layers are up to 12 coffins deep.

That night we did a pub crawl that cost about 16 euro and the bar you start at you get free beer and shots of shitty vodka. There were probably around 130 people or so doing the crawl so they were just continuously pouring beer and shots. After a couple of games of flip cup and taking some shots with some people I was in party mode. We left the bar at 11:30 and went to 3 different bars each of which we got a free shot when we entered. The last bar we went to they rented out a bus to take us on a dropped us of BFE. Jeff ended up leaving earlier with a group of people and when I left the people I was with had their hostel right by the bar and mine was way way away. So I just start walking in a random direction until I hit tram lines. Then after a coin toss decision on which direction to head I start walking down the tracks to next station. At the stops they don’t have maps but just a list of the stops which was perfect because I didn’t remember the name of any of the stops we were at earlier in the day. After about an hour or more of navigating I got back to the hostel just as the sun was starting to rise fml.

The next day (or I guess later that day) I got up around 10 AM and surprisingly for only getting about 5 hours of sleep I felt ready to go. Jeff on the other hand looked like he had a foot in the grave. So I decided to check the area around our hostel out. I stopped in the nearby grocery store and got a milk since it had probably been more then a weeks since I last drank dairy and the smallest size they sold it was a liter. So I walked the streets of Prague with my liter of milk and about 10 minutes later the sun came out and it got immensely hot out and all I kept thinking about was the scene from Anchorman. I ended up walking to their military museum in which you could go to the roof for a nice view of the city. They also charged you about 3 euros to have the privilege of taking photos on the roof because you just can’t let any guy just coming around and taking pictures for free.

Giant TV tower put there by those damn commies.

When I got back Jeff was still set on not getting out of bed so we decided meet at 3:30 in town. However Jeff slept till 3:15 so I was left hanging. At about 6 though we ran into each other at Prague Castle (very random) and then made our way to get some real authentic Czech food at the 6 euro chinese buffet. After completely stuffing ourselves we headed back to the hostel to get ready for the pub crawl again (they reduce the price to half for returning alcoholics so you can’t pass that up).

The pub crawl wasn’t as large as it was the night before but was still a good time. We went to different bars and ended in a spot much closer to our hostel. When I left there was a KFC right across the street so after hitting that up I started the short uneventful walk back.

We woke up at 8 am today (which is May 28),not sure why we are waking up so early at our own free will, and got on the next train to Berlin which we are on now.

B

We took the 10:00a train to Munich and arrived at 2:00pm. We found our first host on couchsurfing.com and he planned to meet us at the train station. His name was Claus. He lived 30-40min outside of Munich and drove to meet us at the traib station. Claus briefly walked us around Munich and explained to us the historical significance of some of the buildings; knowledge he attaied from being a former tour-guide. He told us a brief history of how the city was founded, pointed out the famous glockenspiel (which he never did see actually play), and showed us where we could find the Hofbrauhaus (indoor beer garden), which would come in handy later. After the short tour we were all in agreement to head back to Claus' and cook some dinner and settle in... and shower!

                                                                            Glockenspiel!

                                                                       Hofbrauhaus
Claus lives in Freising, a small town that has more of an authentic German feel to it than Munich. Munich reminds me a lot of America and is definitely the closest thing he have seen to home. There are bigger cars, wider streets, new buildings, and people dress similar to back home. Anyway, we went to Freising, got cleaned up, and cooked for Claus. After eating we planned to catch the big football game tonight.
Our timing could not have been better to arrive in Munich because their city's team was involved in the most important football match outside of the World Cup. You could see the affect this had on the city right away as groups of young kids clad in knickers and funny hats and adorned with Bayern-Munchen paraphanalia walked around chanting through the train station and in the streets. When we stepped into the Hofbrauhaus earlier that day it was erupting with loud grunt-like football chants and beer steins clanging. The game was in Madrid, Spain but we were going to the staidum the team usually plays to watch it on large screens with 70,000 other screaming fans. We picked up Claus' friend, Moritz, on the way to the game. The game wasn't the most exciting football game and the televisions were too small to see well in the large stadium, but to experience the atmosphere was great. Even after Munich lost to International (a team from Milan, Italy) the fans still remained and cheered.

Earlier that day we had talked to Claus about going out after the football game, but we were tired from 4 straight nights of going out in budapest and then 2 in Vienna (after Italy our vacation has since turned into a long weekend in Ann Arbor) so we were kind of looking forward to staying in and catching up on some sleep. However, after the game Claus wanted to go out and we had felt the urge as well. So Claus left us to take his car home and would meet us in the city by train. Brandon, Moritz, and I took the subway into the city and waited to meet with Claus.

This is where our addiction to Doners began. We grabbed our first one while looking for a bar to spend our time at. Like Heidi Spencer to plastic surgery, we were hooked. We everntually found a bar to wait for Claus at. We arrived at the bar around 11(?). We figured Claus would be an hour behind us. After sipping on the best beer in the world for an hour Brandon and I were feeling pretty exhausted and began to count the minutes hoping Claus would walk in soon so we could courtesly stay out for another hour and then head home. Well, that was the plan and if you have learned anything from our constant missing of trains then you already know this plan didn't work out.

Claus didn't arrive until a little after 1am. So we figured we would take the last train of the night at 2:43am. Claus told us the last train left at 5am and when we showed him we had proof a train left at 2:43am he said, "Well 5am is the time I want to stay out til." He also said that a basic couch-surfing rule is that you don't go home until the host wants to go home. He then gave us each a jagermeister shot. Couldn't argue with a man that was being nice enough to let us stay at his place so we splashed some water on our face, dug down deep to find the courage to make it through this night... and then went to the next bar.

Next bar happened to be closed. Good! Can we go home now? No. Claus had heard of a party bus that drives around the city equipped with a bar and packed with people who seek more intoxivcated transit than the normal bus can offer. Well, we found it. We got some beers at the bar and made our way to the back of the bus. It's a great concept, but it was packed with the wrong people. A few were passed out since what appeared to be yesterday going in endless drunken circles around the city. There were the creepy old guys sitting sporadically around the bus. Not the best party bus...

                                                                     Claus on the party bus

So our Party Bus dropped us off at a string of night clubs sometime around 3:15am (I didn't pay attention to ths time because this night wasn't ending til the sun came up). It was club after club. None much bigger than the next, but I would say about 25 in all. One had a foam party going on! However, it turns out not all Germans are as nocturnal as Claus and most of them were dieing out after 4am.

Finally, the sun! Time to head home. It took us 1 hour by train to get back to Freising and Claus snapped a great picture of Brandon and I passed out on the train (coming to facebook soon perhaps?). We arrived back at 6:30am and saw Claus' other roommate leaving to start her day. We found our beds through half-open eyes and tried to explain to our livers not every night would be like this.

the next morning, and by morning i mean 1pm for Brandon and 2pm for me, we arose from bed and realized we didn't have much time to see the Dachau Concentration Camp. Claus offered to drive us to save us an hour instead of taking the train system. We didn't brush, shower, change because we didn't have time. Thank god for the autobahn! We arrived with 2 hours to explore the camp.

Dachau was the first concentration camp and was never used as a death camp, although 43000 people died there. It is an eery feeling to walk the same ground these prisoners had to suffer on and I kept overlaying the footage I have seen from concentration camps with where I was standing. Basically, trying to picture what happened at the various spots I stood at the camp.

From the far end of the camp (I have more pictures of gas chambers and furnaces, but let's keep this a happy blog)

We returned to Fresing by 7:30pm and offered to cook for Claus, again, and his girlfriend who had come into town earlier that day. Since all the stores were closed we had more of the same... chicken stirfry. We were again feeling very tired around 9pm and thought, 'this will be the night we stay in.' Claus seemed to be showing mercy on us this night so it looked like we might get our wish. However, as we were preparing our mattress to sleep on Clau's roommate, Mo, invited us to play Texas hold 'em poker with some friends he was having over.

Apparently, they had just started seeing this game on American television and just starting to play it. It was hard to turn down playing cards with a bunch of locals, a luxury most tourists don't get to have. Friend after friend arrived until there were 12 of us packed around a table. The game started around 10:30am and didn't end until 3:00am! Lucky for us they all spoke English very well and were able to communicate with us. Over cigarrettes and beer we battled each other while Brandon and I tried to latch on to german words we understood and joined in when the conversation occasionally switched to english. I was happy to be eliminated in 5th place and went straight to bed. Brandon, who went out a little earlier, decided to stick around and see who the victor was. To me, sleep seemed more important to my prosperity.

The next morning we got up around 10:30am. Claus had left for a class vacation earlier that morning. Our first couchsurfing experience was fantastic. Claus and his friend Moritz were funny and entertaining to hang out with. It was shocking to me how nice someone could be to a complete stranger. Claus drove 40 min to the train station and then back, walked us around town, drove us to Dachau, paid for drinks and party bus tickets, and let us stay at his place for free. It was impossible to try to repay all these favors and I think we definitely failed to do so... but we tried. Thanks Claus if you're reading this!

Anyway, we wanted to spend one more day in Munich so we took our time packing up and headed downtown to find a hostel. Our plan was to meet up with some Australians that Brandon had chatted up pretty well while I slept on the train from Vienna to Munich. Because none of us reserved a seat on the train we had to spend the first 1.5 hours between carts trying to sleep in the stairwells that people use to board the train. Well, when we went to find our hostel we killed two birds with one stone; in the lobby were the two Aussies, Luke and Tim. They told us they were leaving for a bike tour in an hour and then going out from there. We decied to do the same.

The bike tour was led by Rob, from New York.There were about 14 people in our group. When Rob was giving his initial tour speech a drunk local walked up to our group and started talking, then sat down right by us. We joked with him a little and then tried to ignore him. He started mocking rob as he talked. And then, which may have been the best part of the tour, started licking the exposed breast of the bronze statue behind us! We left our drunken friend and went through the city and talked about its history. I was beginning to think Munich, although a great place to live, didn't have much to do for tourists. That was until our bike tour went through the English Gardens.

This city park is 10x the size of Central Park! It contains a huge population of local residents, pick-up football games, artificial waves that surfers tried to tame, volleyball, nudists, and two beer gardens. It is impossible for me to describe how great this place was. Where we entered the park was a large clearing of grass with a fast stream running through it. As big as this clearing was there seemed to be people everywhere! there was a gathering around some immigrants from Africa who were beating drums to a beat. We rode farther and made it to a giant beer garden completely enclosed within the park. There were 1000s of people drinking and eating here. We stopped for an hour to do much of the same. The two Aussies we were with ordered 2 Mass beers each (one mass is a liter of beer). From there we saw the surfers (and saw a girl with a UofM shirt that was an alum) and then left the park. I wish we had another day to spend entirely in the park.

After the beer garden our Aussie friends were feeling pretty good. Bike riding took on a whole new challenge. Brandon ordered a a mass of darker beer and seemed to be feeling good as well. Under the influence of alcohol we rode our bikes to a few more spots and then back to where the tour started. The tour ended around 8pm. Rob said there was 40 girls from Georgia in another tour group and he invited the 4 of us to come out with him and some other guides. Ummm, yes!

So we went to Hofbrauhaus with Rob and waited for the group of girls. While waiting a waitress wanted us to follow her. She said she had 4 girls than were looking for 4 boys. Okay! Feeling like jigaloos we went to meet the girls who had requested us. They were from Macedonia and spoke great english. We talked to them until about 11:30P, when they had to leave to catch a bus to Amsterdam with the rest of their class. We left from there to go find Rob, but when we got to the bar he said he would be at... well, he wasn't. So Luke, Tim, Brandon, and I took a bus to the part of town with all the clubs that Claus had taken us to two nights before. We got there around 12:30am. Desolate! So we headed back to the hostel. I think we got to bed around 2:00am. Who knows.

We jumped on the 9:00am train to go to Prague the next morning. Despite only drinking 3 masses of beer (wimp) Brandon still felt a little buzzed in the morning. That buzz turned into a hangover about 3 hours into the train ride. That hangover turned into the contents of Brandon's stomach being projected out the window of the train car. Some of it reached the window of the cabin behind us so the guy next door came over and looked into our cabin to investigate. Brandon treated him to a magnificant display of sauerkraut and bratwurst from the day before being sprung from his mouth. The man went back to his seat. after a couple more hours of watching Brandon's stomach acid dry on our cabin window we arrived in Prague.

Why smoke when you can snuff?

Looking at the map of Vienna it seem our hostel wasn’t that far of a walk from the station, but then we quickly realized we underestimated the scale of it. What I was expecting to be a 15 minute walk turned out to be 45 minutes and the kicker of it was it wasn’t even the right hostel. For whatever reasons I got the address of a different hostel and after this realization we found out our hostel was right next to the train station!

By this time it was already 5 PM but not wanting the day to be a complete wash we walked up to the city center which took about 30 minutes. Once there Rick Steves recommended a quick trolley tour around the city. What he failed to mention was that when he said you cross the Danube Canal for a short while that short while is about half an hour. By the time we got back to where we started it was pushing 7 PM which is when happy hour at our hostel started and you can’t miss happy hour. So we jumped on a bus and headed back. As we where there two girls, both named Marcia,  came and sat down with us. They already have been in Vienna a couple of nights and started to tell us of this bar right by the hostel that had some pretty sweet deals. One of which was a liter of beer for 5 euros and the other good one was 10 shots for 20 euro (no smaller quantity was available) and offered the possibility of doing them as a snuff shot which was something very unique. You would take the shot and then slam down on this wooden contraption that would then shoot snuff (snortable tobacco because after you have tobacco you can smoke or chew its only natural the next step is to snort it) up your nose.

The death machine

The nail game (facial expressions play a big part in it)

 It pretty much felt like you shoved Vicks vapor rub up your nose. They also had two good games one of which was trying to hammer a nail into wood using the opposite end of a hammer and another was trying to balance a coin on a lemon floating in water. If you are able to do it you get a free shot. After wasting about a euro on the lemon (with the bartender watching ever one of my failures) he gives me the encouragement to do it one more time. As soon as I drop the coin on the lemon it rolls of but he throws his hands up in the air and goes you got it and immediately pours two shots one for me one for him. This happened another two times and then I was all set. The bartender on the other hand moved down to the next group and started taking shots with them.  After we could no long breath out of our noses (j/k) we headed back to the hostel around 4 am and therefore drinking for 9 straight hours on a night we were originally planning to stay in on.

The next morning we blew our noses and headed out to do some sightseeing and timed our return just in time to make happy hour again lol. When we were at the Schoenbraunn Palace some guy was taking a video and we began to get a little suspicious that as we walked by he followed us on his camera. Not being sure what to do I waved at him in which he waved back, closed his camera, and then left to doctor the video in some way that it can get on Vienna Boys Gone Wild (at least that seemed the most likely). 

Schoenbrunn Palace

This was then followed by buying our subway tickets back from a homeless man out of his fanny pack. It was an interesting experience.  As we were walking back we decided we will probably just stay in tonight and do laundry since it has been long overdue. The first thing we had to take care of though was the suspicious email Jeff got from WSU. He got an email with the header please call as soon as possible and in the email was just a number and I was excited because it was the first time I got to use my Skype account I created about 2 years ago lol (turned out it was only 2.1 cents/minute which is amazing). After about 2 minutes on the phone Jeff got a giant grin on his face and that was when I knew that our night had just turned into a night of liver punishment.

Meeting some people from North Carolina and Israel we told them about our experiences last night (as we played numerous drinking games in the hostel) and they decided they wanted to see it first hand. As soon as we walk in I scouted out that lemon and with a steady hand was able to get it to stick on my first try because I am a big deal.

Bam!!!

After the free shots the liter beers began to flow. I was tired from the night before since I only got about 5 hours of sleep but somehow managed to stay out until 3:30 at which time I realized everyone I came with was gone.

Waking up this morning made me realize how bad I need to do laundry when I was trying to get a shirt out of my bag and when I opened it, it was like someone just breathed out a long drag of a cigarette into my face since all the bars are smoke friendly and ever damn European smokes. Eating the bread out of there this morning tasted like it had remnants of nicotine in it. As I am writing this we are on the train to Munich. We just got to snag some seats after having to sit in the connector between two carts for the past hour. 

Jeff catching some z's. You can also see the legs of another sleeper.

When we arrive in Munich we are meeting Claus who is letting us surf his couch. This is going to be our first couch surfing experience so I am just hopping for the best.

B

Our Bender in Buda

Our train arrived in Budapest only 3 hours behind schedule because the train lost power about an hour outside of the city and we just sat there doing nothing. We also failed to get a sleeper cart for the train for the 18 ½ hour train ride. Lucky after about 8 hours we stopped in Zagreb, Croatia and the other four people in our cabin left and we had the place to ourselves so we put up the armrests and passed out. Didn’t last too long though because it seemed we were woken up every hour by people either checking our tickets or passports. We went through 4 countries and got our passport checked 7 times.

Once we walked out of the station in Budapest we were faced with three massive signs: Burger King, KFC, and Mc Donalds (it was like being home). Later we found out that Mc Donalds pretty much sponsors the entire rail system because on the trains it has a map of all the routes and all the Mc Donalds in town (easily reaching the 30s). After reaching the hostel they gave us a recommended place to go eat, and it was a pretty nice spot and we both were able to get really full for about 3000 Forints which is an obvious steal. After that Jeff headed back to the hostel and I headed out on a mission to find a jacket. I bought a rain jacket at a second hand store and after which I must have looked like a local because I was asked directions twice on the way back. When I did get back it was apparent that drinking time had begun. The name of our hostel was Carpe Diem which means “seize the night” so pretty much everyone in the hostel went out (including the people that worked there and the owners). So we headed out for a night of karaoke and after singing until my throat hurt and my legs were sore from breaking it down.

It was good I had sore legs because the next day I logged a good 15 miles or so. We started by going on a walking tour of the city after which we went to the House of Terror.

This building was used originally by the Nazis after their invasion into Hungary and then by the Soviets during their occupation of Hungary. It was a pretty powerful museum with pictures of those killed and vivid descriptions of their suppression. We then left to head back to the hostel and on the way we passed a Subway. I looked in there to check the prices and it seemed it was equal to about $5 for a foot long. As I am ordering my sub the other worker is following behind her doing putting on the exact same stuff. It wasn’t until after the veggies did I realize she thought I ordered two. After trying to explain I only wanted one I gave up and decided to take the loss. Then upon check out it was about twice as much as I was expecting because I realized the prices listed where for 15cm not 30cm. Therefore I paid $20 for 60cm of sub and reached one of the lowest points of the trip thus far.

By the time we got back people were getting ready for the night and for whatever reason the people that work at the hostel decided to make it a drag night (which just turned into dress ridiculous). So they show up with four giant bags of random clothing, some of which they claim they found in dumpsters, and let us have at it.  We headed out to another karaoke bar where we stuck out to say the least. After I sang “Best of You” and pretty much yelling the entire thing, I was all set since it hurt to swallow. So I turned to my alternative plan which was to go around the city and get some good night pics. I left the bar around 11:30 and wandered around till about 1. One the climb up to some of the monuments its was pretty close to complete darkness and all I kept thinking about is this is how the stories for taken abroad start. I was able to make it back unscathed though and with some good pictures as well and upon my return at the last of my $20 subway purchase.

The next day Jeff and some other people from the hostel headed out to the mineral baths, but still being sour over my subway experience I decided to wander around the city some more. We ended up meeting up a little before 4pm at the bus stop so we could go do some caving. We took the buses to a spot just outside the heart of the city and was the location of one of the longest caves in Hungary that served as a fallout shelter as well. After gearing up in our overalls and helmet we headed down into the caves. I was expecting it mostly just to be cave walking but was surprised and the amount of tight spaces we traveled through. I would say 40 percent of the time in the cave was spent crawling on my stomach. It was an awesome experience and our guide was really laid back and like to show off his caving abilities but if I was that good I would scale down (and then up) and a good 5 meter drop that was pretty much a hole in the floor.

When we got back us and another 5 guys from our hostel  we missed the beginning of the pub crawl so the one last staff person there was about to head out so he was able to guide us to the right spot. Out of the 3 nights this one was the best. The bars we went to were just ridiculous and got better as we went. The first bar we walked pretty much through and abandoned warehouse to the very end where there was a huge open buy with random graffiti all over the place. The second bar was furnish with stuff they found. There was one main bar with a dance floor and then about 6 rooms filled with couches, reclines, coffee tables, etc. It felt like you were in a living room. One of the guys on the crawl broke one of the windows inside the bar and the owners didn’t really care because they said they luck their stuff weathered so they picked up the glass and left the remaining pieces in the frame. The last bar was the biggest of all. The downstairs had 3 different bars with about 7 major rooms. One of the rooms was decked out with old cars that they gutted and turned into booths and bathtubs they knocked the front out of and elevated so you could sit in them. Going upstairs it had a balcony going all around (where you could look down on the downstairs) connecting with four major rooms one of which was a bar and the other three  had a living room type feel to them as well. (They told us the second bar we went to was trying to copy off of this bar). After find a nice spot we order up some sheesa (their name for hooka) and just relaxed.

We ended getting back around 3:30 and they all went to bed and I went to check my email in the main room. As I was sitting there one of the girls staying there walked out and into the kitchen and then a couple minutes behind her (out of the same room) walks out one of the guys that works there completely in the buff and after seeing me, quickly grabbed a nearby towel.

We didn’t end up making the 9:10 train to Vienne due to the fact we were sleeping, but are currently on the 11:10 and should be getting to Vienne in about an hour and a half. As of right now I am just looking forward to sleeping.

Brandon

Also I am aware that there are typos its just I am writing these on the train when I am very tired and really don't care (can't stress that last part enough)

We stayed in Bologna that night and slept well, Brandon on the floor with cushions and me on the couch. The next morning we headed to Florence. Florence was a nice city, but the most touristy of places we had been to so far. We went to the center plaza of town and it was swarming with tourists. There was a church that could claim to have the first renaissance dome atop it. When the church began construction the technology didn't even exist to complete the massive dome. But the Pope had faith and sure enough an engineer came up with a way to pour the dome. This dome supposedly jumpstarted the renaissance architectural movement.  We also went to the Academia Museum where the Statue of David is kept. It really is heads and shoulders above any other marble sculpture ever created. The attention to detail and the porportions of the statue are spot-on. You can see why this was such an important symbol to Florence, who was surrounded by more powerful city-states at the time but used it's arts and sciences to move beyond their neighbors. David, with his defeat of Goliath, epitomizes these ideals. From there we went to another town plaza where the Statue of David originally stood. During this day, Brandon ate gelato about every 2 hours like clockwork. We left Florence that night to return to Bologna to stay. We were intent on milking this Bologna thing for as long as we could!

The dome

dome from the outside

After another night in Bologna we decided to sleep in and spend the day in Bologna, which we figured would have a few sights to see. Also, since it wasn't a big tourist trap we hoped to get a better feel for Italian culture. We went to a flee market in the morning with Joan, the girl we met at the airport. From there she took us to the main plaza of the city and we saw the towns main church (churches in Europe are unmatched). From there we went to what is arguably the oldest university in the world, with the argument being between it and Oxford. We went into the first autopsy room ever used in the world for the study of medicine. The hallways were lined with frescoes and some considerable amount of money went into building it. I believe it was commissioned by the Pope... Bologna happens to have two leaning towers, and since we opted not to go to Pisa because the only thing to do there is take a picture with the tower we thought we better see these. With 3 leaning towers and wth another city built entirely upon clay which is slowly sinking (Venice) it's safe to say Italy doesn't have the best architects in the world. By then it was around 2:00p and we were out of shit to do. Our local map had some landmarks on it so we decided to see what they were. what they were was the most pathetic landmarks we had seen (admittedly, maybe we have become a little spoiled with all the significant historical sites we have been to). So we decided to kill 2 hours until Joan got out of class and we could get back in the apartment.

Joan got out of class at 5pm and told us their graduate program was having a fairwell party tonight that started at 7pm. Brandon and I split a bottle of wine we bought the day before and headed out to Joan's class party. There was a large amount of Americans in the program and w also talked at length with someone from Georgia (the country) and met someone from Kosovo. The program was through John Hopkins University so we were in the presence of some pretty intelligent people. it was enlightening to talk to them, specifically the person from Georgia, about their culture. She said that in Georgia if you bump someone's shoulder on the sidewalk you run! Otherwise they are going to confront you. Also, no one smiles randomly to other people on the street. You are looked at as weird if you do. Brandon chatted up a kid from Beirut who invtied us to come out. his selling point was that it was "fun, there are hot girls, there is a beach, and every so often you get to see shit blow up." While at this party Joan's roommate, Meredith, after liberally enjoying some booze posed this question to us (and this is word-for-word what she asked), "Are you guys really who you say you are?" After Brandon and I stopped laughing we asked what that meant. She said that sometimes people make up stories when you meet them and she was skeptical that he was an actuary and I was going to med school. After pulling out our student IDs and driver's licenses her skepticism subsided. When we got back to the apartment Brandon pulled up his transcripts to drive the final nail in that coffin. Night 3 in Bologna.

Outdoor Flea Market

                                            World's first autopsy room

We planned to spend today in Cinque Terre. it is a series of 5 small towns, the smallest of which has a population of only 240. These towns are right along the Mediteranean on the cliffside and 7 miles of trail along the cliff connect them. We tried to catch the early train to Cinque Terre the next morning, but failed. We arrived in Cinque Terre at 1pm. The walked the path from the first, Rio Maggore, to the second town, Manarola. This was only a 20-25 min flat hike. The view was fantastic! At the second town we busted out our Rick Steve's Best of Europe book and followed his walking tour of the second town. The main commodity of all these towns is wine and you can look up in hillside above these town and see how they carved into the hills to be able to plant grapes. these hillside gardens looked as if they were stairtcases built for the Jolly Green Giant. Each step was about 4 feet wide and just as tall with a retaining wall of rocks keeping the integrity of the step. The second town had a path along its hillside, and through the jungle of grape vines and fruit trees, where you could look down upon the town and the sea. This town also had an above-ground cemetery that we were able to walk through. We met a group of kids from Penn State that were studying in Roma, further solidifying the fact that we messed up by not studying abroad while in school.

It turned out the path was closed to all other adjoining town. We would have to use the train to get to the other 3 towns... and so we did. The next town was Corniglia, which was the smallest of the 5 towns. Brandon and I missed the turn for the tourist path up the hill to the town and found ourselves walking up the snaking road that the locals used to get to and from town. We were in town for 30 min before we decided it was time to move on to the 4th town, which is the biggest of the 5. Just when we turned to leave we ran into our buddy Andrew, the surfer from California who we met on the ferry to Italy and spent 2 days in Naples with. Brandon had been keeping in touch with him through facebook so we knew we has going to Cinque Terre today, but the meeting was still suprising. So we sat with him and someone from his hostel that was going to Stanford. He hung out in a little restuarant and were having a good time, but we spent more time there then I would have liked. By the time we left town, after waiting 45 min for the next train, it was 6:30p. We also had to take the 7:30p train out of Cinque Terre to make our main train home at 9:20pm. So we only had an hour and still had two town to see. We obviously only had time for one and so saw the 4th town, Vernassa. We walked to their harbor, the only town of the 5 that possessed a true harbor. We quickly walked around, loaded up on food, and headed back. We got back to Bologna at midnight. In total, we spent 8 hours on trains today. It took it's toll on us. The following day, Venice! And then out of italy.

Another city and another train missed. We tried to make the 11:10am train and we were at the station on time. The problem was they didn't have a free seat for us. So we boarded the 11:56a train and got into Venice at 2pm. The train station opened up to the Grand Canal, the backbone of Venice. We hopped on the ferry right out front for 6.5 euros and took it to the end of town where the canal opened up. Rick Steves had a tour for us on this trip so I tried to read along to point out important buildings as we passed them on the Grand Canal. We arrived in the city during hightide and it was crazy to see water right up to people's doorsteps and a few houses where the water rose above the bottom of the door. Our last stop was St. Marcos' Square, the main plaza of the city.

From St. Marcos' Square we walked into St. Marcos' Basillica; a beautiful church and the main one for Venicians. While in line a couple girls noticed my Detroit Marathon shirt and guess where they went to school... UofM. So more Wolverines! The church was dark, but beautiful. it was littered with mosaics and trophies that traders returned to Venice with from around the world. We had to use a back entrance and walk on platforms in certain areas of the church because it was high-tide, which formed puddles around the front of the church and inside one of the rooms. You are not supposed to take pictures here, but either were you of the Statue of David or the Sistine Chapel and I refused to have my streak of disobediance broken here. So, I snapped a few more shots.

Right next door to the church was the Doge's Palace, "the most powerful 1/2 acre in all of Europe for 400 years" (Rick Steves). We toured this place and the prison attached to it, that was still used until 1930. The Palace favored oil paintings with dark colors. One of the rooms actually held the largest oil painting ever done. You think American beauracracy is bad? It seemed like every room we walked in, and that was a lot of rooms, was meant for some council, committee, or board. This palace was richly decorated and very impressive, which I'm sure was it's intended purpose to visiting foreign dignitaries.

As we exited I realized I did not have my Eurail ticket in my pocket. You know, the pass that allows us to go on trains for 2 months? Also, and I have no idea why other than to scam backpackers, they don't keep an electronic record of when you buy a Eurail ticket. So, when you lose your ticket you are shit-out-of-luck. It must have came out of my pocket when I pulled my wallet out. I would keep them in separate pockets, but since you can't use your back pockets unless you want to get pick-pocketed i'm left with two pockets for all my things. Anyway, I began to walk back to the Doge's Palace to see if I dropped it where I last used my wallet. After going through 2 people I find someone that speaks English well enough. As I explain what I lost I light goes on for him and he comes back with my pass. He tells me a little kid saw it on the ground and grabbed it. After giving the random security guard a hug and leaving him probably jsut a little creeped out I met back up with my brother and started to walk back along the Grand Canal to the train station.

We didn't follow right along the canal on our walk back. We took Rick Steves' advice and got lost in Venice. It has a series of small streets zig-zagging every which way. I recommend wandering off. You get away from the tourists and see the true Venice, which is a nice place. We got some food, saw the Rialto Bridge, and had our final gelato fix. We sat outside the train station for an hour and overlooked the Grand Canal as we waited for our train. As night swept in the light posts along the river began to glow and the romantic ambiance of Venice set in.... too bad I was here with my brother. We people-watched and then boarded our 15-hour train to Budapest, Hungary. Ciao Italia!