Arrived in Nice

After a looonnnnggg day on trains, we have arrived in Nice!! It is beautiful here. Just had an amazing dinner by our hostel in Old Nice. Will write more later

Greg

Canyon Grimsel

We just took this trip to a new level...

Interlaken is a huge extreme sports haven for the adrenaline seeking junkies. Since before we left we discussed canyoning and couldn't be more happy with our decision. Yesterday we finally got a taste what what his area is famous for.

We arrived at Outdoor Interlaken at 1pm and were greeted by our guides, Ian and D who were Scottish and Irish, respectively. We were in a group of 7(perfect small group). It was us, two girls from Philly and a father/daughter duo from Toronto.

After getting fitted for shoes, wet suits, life jackets and helmets we loaded the van and headed for the 50min drive to Canyon Grimsel. The weather had been cloudy all day and on the ride up we were warned by our guides that they were monitorin the rain and that they would decide when we get to the top. Because we were going in the canyon, a narrow window of space, we could get very lucky or unlucky depending on where the rain was headed.

Honestly, I was never scared but the butterflies did hit me a little when we were pulled over on the side of the road to put on our gear and I was fitting with my harness. "this is actually happening," I said to myself. That feeling quickly went away watching all of us getting undressed to our boxers then putting on these tight wet suits and jackets. Very funny.

After getting dressed we drove up the mountain about another 10 minutes. We pulled over on the side of the road and headed the rest of the way on foot. As we walked I caught one of the guides looking back to the other who was at the car checking the radar. I saw a big thumbs up and was delighted our adventure was officially on. Now I thought we were headed into the woods but all of a sudden we stopped and the guide began clipping himself into the side rails of the street. We were about to belay right off the side of the road.

I watched Steve and Greg go down with ease, channeled my limited climbing experience and said to myself, "let's do this." It all came back to me in seconds and I began taking jumps, freed my hands from the rope and enjoyed the ride. That is, until the big jump.

We headed down the canyon, which was FREEZING. Because of the wet suit, the water would rush in from your wrists or neck area and flow down your body like an intense chill. As long as you kept those parts out of the water, you really didn't notice it too much. First was a relatively small jump to get our feet's wet(pun intended). The jump was easy and after getting that rush of cold water to the face I gave an excited yell and double pound on my helmet which was the sign that you were okay.

The next was the big jump where the butterflies came back a little. It was a 30ft jump where you had to climb up to a small(enough space to barely fit two feet) platform. Before we climbed up, the guide had warned us,"If you climb up there, you are going to jump. So decide now." I said to myself, I was not going on this trip and not doing the big jump. I got up there and was trying not to think. The guide told me where to jump, I gave two thumbs up and he yelled 3,2,1 GO! And I jumped. No thinking at all. I fell only hearing the sound of the waterfall next me and BAM, hit he water, got that freezing rush of water to my face and popped out with a huge yell and an adrenaline packed powerful two fist pumps to my helmet to signal I was okay. Let ms tell you something, I was more than okay. I was fantastic. What a rush.

The rest of the trip was filled with slides, jumps and a zip line jump with walks through the canyon in between. It was a beautiful spot. I literally felt like I was in an episode of Man vs Wild following Bear Grills teach how to maneuver yourself through a canyon.

The whole group had a blast but the three of us in particular really the center of attention when it came to he entertainment. We were just being our goofy selves screaming, cheering and dancing. It was very nice to hear when everyone was leaving, the father in the group thanked us for making it so much fun.

The rest of the day we were on a canyon high, revelaing in what we had just done. It was so much fun we all bought the videos of it. So you will all be able to see us act like fools jumping off waterfalls.

We are headed to Geneva now. See you in a week in a half!

Dave

Cinque Terre

***NOTE: lots of blogs were just posted, so scroll down!***



Cinque Terre (pronounced 'Chink-weh Tay-reh') literally means "five lands". It is a collection of five tiny Italian towns that line the coast along the Italian riviera. Each town is separated by only about a mile or two, and the main attraction are the hiking trails that run between each of the five towns, allowing intrepid explorers (such as ourselves) the chance to hike all the way from one end of the five to the other.



Now before we came here, it was advertised as a lot of different things, namely "The most beautiful place on Earth," and "an escape from touristy Europe."

After having spent two days there and hiking through, I can say that both statements are partially true, but neither is really 100%.

#1, It is seriously beautiful. The towns are all built on huge hills that run down to the water, and as such, they are built on top of each other. Tis Ed to the Brownstein-inspired nickname of "Cinque-Stairs," as going pretty much anywhere required either a steep climb or steep descent up or down stairs. Walking through the the villages and along the mountains, I would say it is on par with the beauty of, say, Santorini. It doesn't exceed it, however, mostly because of...

#2, while it probably was a non-touristy oasis of Europe at some point, this is no longer the case. Led by guidebooks boasting about the remote-ness of the area, the place has ironically transformed into a not-that-remote-anymore destination for Americans, Italians, Germans, and the French. Don't get me wrong, it was nice to not be waiting in line for entrance to a museum, but walking through the towns you got the feeling that every store existed only to serve the needs of tourists; we were not visitors to life in the town, we ran its economy. It was, as a result, a bit kitschy and manufactured.

The benefit of this though, is you have a highly-maintained, easily navigable trail system that criss-crosses the natural beauty of the area. But more on that in a second.

On our first day (we hiked on day 2) we relaxed in town number 1, Riomaggiore, getting our bearings and just enjoying having nowhere to be. At sunset, we met a very nice American couple from Minnesota who were traveling through Italy. Carrie (I hope I got the right spelling) is a real estate agent and Steve flies airplanes for Delta back in the states. While we chatted only a few minutes at first, we ended up running into them for drinks later at the only bar in town. They were exceedingly kind and bought us a round, and we ended up staying up til after midnight laughing and trading stories about traveling. Another great traveling moment for all of us. If you guys are reading this, post the picture of all of us!

On our second day in CT, we set out to hike the area. We woke up around 8:30, grabbed some breakfast and headed out. The hike was awesome. There are not too many words you can use to describe walking for 8-ish miles along a beautiful coast, so I hope the pictures do most of the talking. Each town we got to was prettier than the last, the views were spectacular, the weather was perfect, and the German old people trudging along with their unnecessary walking poles, were hilarious.








The trails were easy-moderate difficulty with lots of up-and-downs and more stairs than any of our knees truly cared for. The reward though, was undeniable, and truly worth the pasta weight that I lost in sweat.

After reaching the 5th and final town, Monterosso al Mare, we headed straight for the crystal clear waters of the Mediterranean sea. The water was cold but incredibly refreshing for 3 smelly Americans who just hiked for 5 hours. It was a perfect end to the day. When we returned home to Riomaggiore, we all showered, rested, and got pizza at one of the shops in town. We retreated to our hostel/house and fell asleep around 10pm, tired and satisfied from the day.



Currently, we are on a train, just having passed the Switzerland border (customs is aboard right now), heading to Interlaken, Switzerland. The weather is already cooler, and outside of the train windows, the hills have turned to snow-capped mountains. I think I speak for the 3 of us when I say we have no idea where the time has gone: we have only 4 more cities to go before we head home to the US. It has been an amazing time zipping through this continent, and its going to be a great last two weeks of Interlaken, Nice, Barcelona and Madrid!!

Swiss cheese awaits!

Greg


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Florence

After seeing Rome, the center of the historical Ancient Roman Empire, I was really excited about getting to know the "Real Italy," one that is purely Italian.

Within seconds of hopping off the train in Florence, the cultural capital of Italy and the start of the Great Renaissance, I knew I had found it.

If Rome should be remembered for what the Romans did, Florence should be remembered for what the Florentines re-did. After the Romans skipped town around 500 AD, Europe went backwards into the Dark Ages, a time of highly theological, non-logical thinking in which Science took a back seat to superstition and tradition. It was Europe's "Great Regression," a time where life was so crappy that it was viewed only as an ugly pit stop on the highway toward heaven. For those that have stopped at "South Of The Border" on I-95 while heading between DC and Florida... You know exactly what I am talking about.

This went on for far longer than it should have, almost a thousand years, when a group of men decided that life itself is actually pretty beautiful as is. They looked at mountains and flowers and even the human form and said: "you know, this ain't half bad." They were not, as commonly thought, anti-religion or anti-God. They just viewed all of these beautiful things as God's gifts, especially the gift of creativity in art.

And the center of this great awakening? You got it: Florence

Florence is packed solid with hundreds of renaissance sights: art museums, Renaissance architecture, etc. etc. To give you an idea of how beautiful this place is to the eye, when Nazi fighter pilots were ordered to blow up the bridges connecting both parts of the city they left one of the bridges: the Ponte Vecchio, because they thought it too beautiful to destroy. True story.

We took our two days in Florence to see some of the sights and eat ourselves silly. First, right after arriving in the city, we went to The Duomo, a massive Renaissance-style cathedral that sits in the center of town. It is a beautiful white, green and pink marble with an amazing red-tiled dome. The cathedral was actually built with a big gaping hole in it because they did not have the technology to put the dome on. Now remember that this was accomplished almost a thousand years earlier, and you now know why this was truly a great regression into the dark ages.





We followed another great Rick Steves walking tour through the city, pointing out other examples of Renaissance florentine works and continued all the way south to the famous bridge, the Ponte Vecchio. Truth be told, its just a bridge... But unlike most bridges, it has shops and apartments built right onto it. Situated between the banks of this beautiful city, it truly is pretty. We enjoyed strolling around and sitting on one of the bridges nearby so that we could enjoy the view of the P.V.

That night we bought some great Tuscan wine (for very cheap, I might add) and went to our new favorite restaurant on earth, Leonardo's. This was recommended to us by Rick Steves' book and it did not disappoint. It is a great self-service cafeteria with some of the best food and fairest prices I have ever seen. I'm talking 8€ for a massive lasagna, bread, veggies and wine. You couldn't beat that deal with a stick.

On Day 2, we met at the Ferrovia (train station) to do a free walking tour, this time with a nice lady named Nicolette who was so Italian it was sometimes hard to understand her. She did a good job, repeated some of what we heard Rick day a day earlier, but also walked us to a few other sights in the city. After our tour, we trekked up to Piazalla Michelangelo, the highest hill in central Florence, for a commanding view of the city and mainly the Duomo which sat centrally within the buildings. It was a beautiful view, and reminded me of Munich/Bavaria with the mountains lurking just beyond the city. I can definitely see why the renaissance started where it did.





After, we went to The Academie, where Michelangelo's famous David statue resides. I was awestruck. Michelangelo carved all of his statues out of single blocks of marble without any assistance or marking tools. He just grabbed a chisel and went to town on the block. According to Rick, he viewed himself not as creating anything, but instead freeing the figure that was already in the marble. Deep, I know. How he did this, I have no clue. The David is so lifelike, so perfectly done that its hard to believe anybody could do this at all. Throw in the fact that it was once one block and nothing but hand tools were used!? Crazy.

Lining the hall to the David are unfinished sculptures, called "The Prisoners" because they look as if individuals are trying to free themselves from the blocks. It gave great insight into how difficult the job must have been for Michelangelo, and how incredibly talented he truly was.


For dinner... You guessed it: Leonardo's self service restaurant. Mmmmmmm so good. This time it was a mix of spaghetti, gnocchi and other pastas- so yummy.

Oh and I should mention that both nights we partook in Gelato, described as an edible art form in Italy. We ate at Grom, which was dually recommended in both of our guide books, and it lived up to the hype big time. I was so happy with my vanilla/strawberry double scoop that I did it two nights in a row.



Florence was a beautiful city with a small-town feel. While Rome was like Berlin: big, bustling, busy; Florence was like Munich: more local, smaller, quieter. Walking through the streets to and from our hotel was an attraction all in itself. We had a really great time.

Enjoy the pictures!

Greg

When in Rome...

Rome was so fascinating to us. As the historical capital of the Roman Empire and the current capital of the Catholic church, Rome has so much to see. I feel like it was so similar to Berlin as a historian's dream, just that the history is much older. Unlike Greece, though, Rome's sights still feel fresh. I constantly found myself reminding myself that the column, or building, or fountain in front of me had been there for almost 2,000 years!

To really enjoy Rome, you have to know a bit about the the guys that occupied it for a thousand years. While I am sure I learned a bunch about them through high school, most of the information came back to me through our tour guide Stefano and our trusty leader/deity Rick Steves.

The Roman empire lasted a thousand years, between 500 BC and 500 AD. It's hard to imagine that they're that old because a lot of the things they did are the model for society today. In fact, much of what they did was so ahead of their time that during the period after the empire fell ("The Dark Ages") society pretty much regressed. The government was a representative republic, freedoms of religion and speech were all ideas encompassed in Roman society and protected by Roman laws. They built massive stadiums for entertainment and even had assigned seats in the Colosseum. They threw parades, questioned their leaders, payed taxes, went to horse races. After learning about the Romans, it is easy to see why the thousand years after their departure from Europe were called "The Dark Ages." Society regressed post-Romans, and when it got back on track, it reverted to much of the things that the Romans had already pioneered.

So... 1600 years after the last Roman emperor took off, the three of us trekked around to see how awesome they really were. On day 1, our free tour guide, Stefano, took us around to one of the most recognizable ancient landmarks: the Pantheon. Built nearly 2,000 years ago, this was a temple to all of the gods that Romans worshipped. It was the first temple of its kind- devoted just to spirituality and not to one god or religion in particular. It is really incredible to walk through, imagining that it was built in a time without electricity or machines- it is so unbelievably constructed it looks like it was built yesterday. The dome is one of the greatest engineering achievements; made of solid concrete, thinning out as it rises and capped with a huge hole in the center that allows natural sunlight (and rain) in to the inside of the temple. In fact, its the only source of light in the Pantheon. Its really a sight to behold.





On day two, the three of us headed to the famous Roman Forum and Colosseum for what was easily the most awe-inspiring sightseeing of the trip. The Forum was the center of life for the Romans, hosting the markets, political and religious centers of everyday life. It was "Main street" if you will. With Rick Steves cued up on the iPod, we listened to really interesting commentary about what life was like, while walking through the ruins. The ruins, by the way, were not very 'ruined'. They are so well preserved, and so well understood that it is not a stretch to imagine walking around a thousand years ago. Personally, I enjoyed seeing the arc of Titus, the giant victory arch constructed by Jewish slaves after the conquering of Jerusalem and burning of the temple by the Romans. This, as you may know, was the single event that caused the fleeing from ancient Israel and the formation of the Diaspora that we have today. I have been to Israel many times, and seen the Jerusalem part of the story... But to see it from Ancient Rome, a place where the sacking of the temple was not a travesty but a cause for celebration... It was very weird and different. It reminded me that all of these historical stories truly are linked.


After the forum, we walked a few hundred yards to the ancient Colosseum, the center of entertainment. It is easily the most recognized landmark in all of italy and is even more "awesome" in person. Again, I was so impressed with the ability of the ancient Romans to do pretty much exactly what we do today. For those who haven't been to see this amazing thing, this was no small stadium! It held 50,000 people! It has a huge network of underground tunnels that was used as backstage, as well as public bathrooms, stairwells, concourses, even places to buy food other things while at the event. This is the NFL 2,000 years ago (minus labor discussions and Brett Favre). We did another free Rick Steves audio tour, loved it, and then just walked around ooohing and aahing at the incredibleness of the site. The Romans had their stuff together, it's amazing how between the fall of their empire and a thousand years later, the world managed to screw it up pretty badly.


Our third day in Rome was dedicated to seeing the capital of an entirely different Empire: the Roman Catholic Church.

Christianity was just one of many different religions in ancient Rome... And it grew pretty quickly. Our tour guide made a point of repeating that in only 100 years Christianity grew from being a religion that you could be punished for practicing (because Romans viewed the emperor as one of many gods, and christianity is monotheistic) to the official state religion of the Roman Empire. Big change. This dominance of Christianity in Rome went nowhere, even after the fall of the empire, and that is why Vatican city is located where it is. Vatican City is its own country- it is not in Italy. It has its own police, post office and its own head of state, who is, as you might guess, El Papa- The Pope.

The "country" is pretty tiny by country standards, but includes some great must-see's... Namely St. Peters square, the incredibly large open oval that is featured in every shot of the Vatican. In front of the square is St. Peters Cathedral with the largest dome in Europe (designed by Michelangelo). The church takes your breath away. It is just simply so gargantuan and beautiful. It defies logic. I was so impressed that I converted to christianity for about 15 minutes; you see since it was Sunday, the only way to get close to the Altar is to be in attendance for mass which is open to the public. I walked right up to the guys guarding the entrance to mass, about 3/4 the way down the church, asked if I could attend, tried to look as Christian as possible, and was admitted. And so it can be said: the three of us attended mass at the most famous church on earth.





On a sad note, we did not get to see the big man in the awesome hat... As he was leading mass somewhere in Germany that sunday morning. When we arrived to the square, we were able to see him leading the service on the monstrous Panasonic Pope-Vision boards. But I was pretty sad, since when he is in town he comes out on the balcony on Sundays and does the whole pope thing. We will have to return.

While at the Vatican, we also climbed St. Peters dome which was a claustrophobic 500-ish step trek up to the highest point in Rome. The views were incredible as you might imagine, looking out at a city so old and so riddled with history that is known as "The Eternal City."





It wouldn't be fair if I ended this blog without talking about the food. We got incredible pasta and pizza every night while in Rome. On the first night we were sent by Stefano to a local spaghetti place which turned out some of the best noodles I have ever had. On nights 2 and 3, we went to a place recommended by the Let's Go guidebook people which served amazing pizzas for impossibly low prices. I said to Dave before landing in Rome that my week in Italy would be a failure if I did not gain 5 pounds in carbs. After Rome, I was safely on my way to that goal.

Rome is something else. You can't walk more than a few blocks without seeing a massive Bernini fountain, a church older than most rocks, or a towering egyptian obelisk that was built before Christ. If dropped in the middle of Rome, having no idea where we were, I feel like it would be easy to figure it out within seconds. We walked all throughout the city, from the Spanish steps to Piazza Navolo and back a hundred times. I will truly remember Rome for its incredibly preserved history. Never before has so long ago seemed so recent. For that feeling alone, I would come back again and again.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Been a little while...

It has been a little while since I've posted anything up here. I apologize sincerely since I know you all anxiously await my posts and not the other two knuckle heads I share this blog with. 

So, Italy is pretty cool huh! Now that we are leaving our final stop in Italy, it is crazy to compare the huge differences between each city. Venice was obviously quite unique, Rome is the large historic capital, Florence is very proudly the cultural center (both historically and currently), and finally cinque terre is a great vacation spot/
getaway for locals. And that's it, great country, see you in Switzerland!

Just kidding, I'll elaborate. 

Rome was a sight to behold for sure. Large buildings and piazzas, that's a square for you uncultured folk, are all
over the place, Marble monuments and ruins are scattered about, and Catholicism is everywhere. You can almost still feel the sense of grandeur that was once here when this city was the center of the worlds greatest empire. For me, the coliseum and roman forum were the best part. The Roman empire was a society that had it all right for a long time. They had democracy, art, theaters, sports stadiums, they married for love. But, eventually it was all ruined by some selfish emperors who wanted all the power. The catholics have done a pretty good job of keeping up with the huge monuments in Rome though, with a whole separate country of their own. St peters basilica is not only the largest and most ornate church in the world, but it may beat out all other buildings as well. The view from the top is splendid though, and I highly recommend taking the 520 steps up (Greg thinks they counted wrong though). 

We took a step down in size, but not in culture when we went to Florence. I think we'd all agree that this is a very cute little city. The start of the renaissance occurred here around 1400 and Florentines will be certain to make sure you don't forget that. The art and sculptures are everywhere and they sure are proud of their historic artists. If you don't like art and want to limit it in your trip, make sure to go to the academia and see the David. It is very impressive to imagine this thing once being a single solid block of marble, and the unfinished works by Michelangelo nearby only help make the David more impressive. Florence is littered with churches just like Rome, and the are all covered with green and white marble that is local to the area and very beautiful. The duomo was one of my favorite churches to see from the outside, but inside, well it's hard to compete with St. Peters basilica. Around the duomo is also a great piazza to sit in at night and watch people stroll about. Lots of young students eating gilato, lovers flirting, old friends, and lone photographers trying to get a unique angle on the often photographed duomo. The best way to see Florence though, is from above. The piazza michelangelo sits on a hill overlooking the city and is such a beautiful spot. 

When we left Florence, I think I couldn't have been happier to see mountains instead of another giant church. These five towns, and the coastline they sit on are a wonderful change of pace. Theyre almost like a more colorful version of Oia in santorini. On our first morning, we woke and began hiking the 9km trail between the towns. We were warned about the Germans and French being extremely serious and pushy. I don't think they were pushy, but they certainly took this fairly moderate day hike WAY too seriously. It's about a 5 hour hike, with a stop in a town every hour and these people were ready to join bear grylls in the amazon for a week. They were geared up with hiking poles, huge boots and backpacks bigger than the one I'm using for this whole trip (okay maybe the backpack thing isn't saying that much). The trail itself was complete with some decent climbs, a few nice towns, and some amazing views of the cliff covered coastline.  When we finished the hike, we had a nice swim in the chilly Mediterranean water and it was soo refreshing after a hot and sweaty day of hiking. Since I didn't have a bathing suit, I went european style in my undies! Finally, after training back to the town we were staying in we feasted on pizza and quickly crashed in anticipation for our 6am train this morning. 

I am sad to see Italy and that coastal mountain area go, but extremely excited for what's ahead. I have been awaiting Switzerland and the alps this whole trip! It should be a great few days in the mountains before our final push for home. 4 stops left!

-bear

Been a little while...

It has been a little while since I've posted anything up here. I apologize sincerely since I know you all anxiously await my posts and not the other two knuckle heads I share this blog with.

So, Italy is pretty cool huh!? Now that we are leaving our final stop in Italy, it is crazy to compare the huge differences between each city. Venice was obviously quite unique, Rome is the large historic capital, Florence is very proudly the cultural center (both historically and currently), and finally cinque terre is a great vacation spot/
getaway for locals. And that's it, great country, see you in Switzerland!

Just kidding, I'll elaborate.

Rome was a sight to behold for sure. Large buildings and piazzas, that's a square for you uncultured folk, are all
over the place, Marble monuments and ruins are scattered about, and Catholicism is everywhere. You can almost still feel the sense of grandeur that was once here when this city was the center of the worlds greatest empire. For me, the coliseum and roman forum were the best part. The Roman empire was a society that had it all right for a long time. They had democracy, art, theaters, sports stadiums, they married for love. But, eventually it was all ruined by some selfish emperors who wanted all the power. The catholics have done a pretty good job of keeping up with the huge monuments in Rome though, with a whole separate country of their own. St peters basilica is not only the largest and most ornate church in the world, but it may beat out all other buildings as well. The view from the top is splendid though, and I highly recommend taking the 520 steps up (Greg thinks they counted wrong though).

We took a step down in size, but not in culture when we went to Florence. I think we'd all agree that this is a very cute little city. The start of the renaissance occurred here around 1400 and Florentines will be certain to make sure you don't forget that. The art and sculptures are everywhere and they sure are proud of their historic artists. If you don't like art and want to limit it in your trip, make sure to go to the academia and see the David. It is very impressive to imagine this thing once being a single solid block of marble, and the unfinished works by Michelangelo nearby only help make the David more impressive. Florence is littered with churches just like Rome, and the are all covered with green and white marble that is local to the area and very beautiful. The duomo was one of my favorite churches to see from the outside, but inside, well it's hard to compete with St. Peters basilica. Around the duomo is also a great piazza to sit in at night and watch people stroll about. Lots of young students eating gilato, lovers flirting, old friends, and lone photographers trying to get a unique angle on the often photographed duomo. The best way to see Florence though, is from above. The piazza michelangelo sits on a hill overlooking the city and is such a beautiful spot.

When we left Florence, I think I couldn't have been happier to see mountains instead of another giant church. These five towns, and the coastline they sit on are a wonderful change of pace. Theyre almost like a more colorful version of Oia in santorini. On our first morning, we woke and began hiking the 9km trail between the towns. We were warned about the Germans and French being extremely serious and pushy. I don't think they were pushy, but they certainly took this fairly moderate day hike WAY too seriously. It's about a 5 hour hike, with a stop in a town every hour and these people were ready to join bear grylls in the amazon for a week. They were geared up with hiking poles, huge boots and backpacks bigger than the one I'm using for this whole trip (okay maybe the backpack thing isn't saying that much). The trail itself was complete with some decent climbs, a few nice towns, and some amazing views of the cliff covered coastline. When we finished the hike, we had a nice swim in the chilly Mediterranean water and it was soo refreshing after a hot and sweaty day of hiking. Since I didn't have a bathing suit, I went european style in my undies! Finally, after training back to the town we were staying in we feasted on pizza and quickly crashed in anticipation for our 6am train this morning.

I am sad to see Italy and that coastal mountain area go, but extremely excited for what's ahead. I have been awaiting Switzerland and the alps this whole trip! It should be a great few days in the mountains before our final push for home. 4 stops left!

-bear

Leaving Florence for Cinque Terre

Heading out of an amazing 2.5 days here in Florence. We have lots of pictures and stories to share and will be catching up on the blogging while on the train.

Heading to Cinque Terre, a collection of 5 cliffside towns in the Italian Riviera (see: Another heaven on Earth)

Talk soon!

Greg

Rome'in around

Written yesterday...

We are currenty on a train from Rome to Florence. I am sitting across from Greg and Steve and began thinking about what it's going to be like when I'm not with them 24/7... and it made me happy. Just joking. I am very excited to get home, see all of you and get the next stage of my life started with grad school and living in Arlington but I will miss this experience. I felt this way when the trip began but almost 6 weeks in, I still feel so lucky to be on this trip with these guys. Not only have we been able to see these magnificent parts of history but knowing that we will be able to reminisce years from now makes it all the more special. And on top of the touristy things, we've been able to share some moments that are shaping the next stages in our lives. So many decisions have been made while we've been away such as what schools to go to, cities to live in, apartments to live in and tatoos to get(just joking...or am i?). It's been great. But now let's talk about Rome.

Rome is a beautiful city with a rich culture and a history that just makes you want to watch the movie Gladiator. After being delayed due to another strike, we arrived in Rome with plenty of energy so we went on a tour around the city. Our guide was great. A local who clearly loved the city and loved showing tourists some of the side attractions most don't get to see including two beautiful churches and stories behind the architecture and sculpures. One story in particular was in The Pantheon(one of the main attractions he took us to). The 2nd king of Italy and his wife are buried there(also the 1st king of Italy and the famed artist Raphael). His wife's name is Margaritta. Remind you of something? That's right, this classic pizza was named after her in 1889 and contains basil, tomato and mozzarella. The colors of the Italian flag(Boom! Knowledge bomb).

The next two days were filled with the typical yet classic tourist attractions; The Colloseum, The Forum, Vatican City( which includes St. Peter's Basillica) and a few other famous piazzas and fountains. It was also filled with great pastas, pizza and wine.

Our last night was great. After some good pizzas and wine we headed out on a night walk of the city. Every city we go to is similar in how it lights up the buildings and monuments and I love it. It helps create such a cool atmosphere for the city and you almost feel like you're seeing a whole new city when walking at night.

I leave you with a quote from the movie Gladiator when Crowe's character is talking to his owner who was also a gladiator and was freed. I said this repeatedly as I walked through The Collosuem. This one's for you Colin.

Maximus: [laughing] You knew Marcus Aurelius?

Proximo: [very quickly and defensively] I didn't say I knew him, I said he touched me on the shoulder once! -- Gladiator (2000)

Dave

Santorini is the place to be

I think I've fallen in love, and her name is Santorini. If you have ever been here you know how I feel. We've spent the past 5 weeks roaming city to city seeing monuments, museums and memorials. This was quite a change of pace. After about 2 or so days of traveling/ sleeping on floors on a variety of trains and boats we finally got to one of the most beautiful places I've ever been.

We arrived around 5am and began the drive up the massive cliff face. Winding back and forth you could see the small dock lights get smaller and smaller as we rose in elevation. Then we drove about 10 minutes across the island and about 3 turns later we were looking at the ocean. After we checked in we were too excited to go to sleep. As we walked outside we couldn't help but to notice two things in the moonlight. The black sandy beach at your feet and huge mountain that makes you feel like an ant next to a rock. After about 10 minutes that 2nd wind of energy dissipated(gre vocab what up!) and we crashed.

After a well deserved sleep in, we ate and began an adventure I will never forget. We rented ATVs for the day and it was AWESOME(yes it needs to be capitalized). From 1pm to 10pm we drove around the entire island. The view was priceless. At one point we had massive cliffs on our right and the sea to our left. It was hard to decide whether to focus on driving or the view(i think you can guess which won). One small town, Oia, is the quintisential Greek looking town. Rows of different sized homes and small hotels/cottages with white walls and blue doors all facing the open sea. Oh yea and the three small volcanic islands that look as if they were placed there strategically to make the view even more beautiful. After hours of driving around the island we headed back to one of our first stops, a light tower on the south west edge of the island to watch the sunset. There we climbed around a bit and although clouds prevented a clear view, it was still a beautiful sight. We headed to a market to get dinner and drove around with the remaining daylight getting in our last moments with our ATVs. Needless to say it was very sad droppin them back off at the rental place. What a great day!

The next day we climbed the mountain near our hostel that holds the remains of the ancient city of Thira. Then relaxed by the beach and pool in the afternoon. Soooo relaxing. That night we headed out for my bday dinner(bc my actual bday dinner would be on a boat) at place called Atlas, which is owned by a Canadian who moved here after only wanting to spend 2 months island hopping. He said he spent a week in Crete then when he got here, never left. Greg and i had mousaka, a greek dish kind of similar to a pot pie with meat, eggplant and potatoes, very good. For my bday we were brought 3 shots of Raki(pronounced rocky) which is basically a greek moonshine made from the local wine leftovers.

We headed back to our hostel where we watched the Real Madrid vs Barcelona fútbol game and awaited my bday. A few drinks, new friends and another free bday shot of Raki later, it was midnight. 23 yrs old, crazy.

Leaving Santorini was the first time I was actually sad leaving on this trip. We went at a perfect time before tourist season, the people were so nice, the atmosphere was wonderful and the views were spectacular.

My bday was spent sitting on the back of the ferry watching us weave in and out of the islands. "Tough life," as my Dad would say. The only sad thing was watching the Caps get knocked out of the playoffs :(

We spent a nice semi rainy day in Athens seeing the major sights. I was warned this before and will also recommend the same thing, there is no need to spend more than one day in Athens( unless you're a huge Greek history fan).

As Greg mentioned there was a slight delay flying to Rome, lame-sauce. Leaving Greece marked the end of the first part of our trip. With officially all of our hostel/hotels booked we begin heading back west towards our final destination, Mardid. It was a wonderful 4.5 weeks and am very excited for what comes next.

Hope all is well with all of you,

Dave

Stunning Santorini

Santorini, a small island off of the coast of Greece, truly is like heaven on earth.




When we last talked, we had left Venice and headed southeast on a 30-hour ferry ride which took us to the western Greece town of Patras. As we needed to get to Athens- across the country on the east coast- there was some confusion as how to actually get between the two cities. Greek public transportation is notoriously unpredictable, and getting practical information is nearly impossible. While we were promised a shuttle by the ferry company between the two cities, we were told there was no such shuttle- then that there was- then that there wasn't. Finally, Minoan Lines- the ferry company- did provide a bus shuttle, for a nominal price of 17€. We arrived in Patras around 8pm and arrived to Pireaus, the suburb of Athens that has the port, around 11:30 at night.

The plan was to grab a hotel, sleep a few hours and then wake up and hop right on the ferry to Santorini. Unfortunately for us, May 1st is some sort of communist holiday (not a joke) and almost every form of transportation was halted as a result of a huge transit workers strike. Our ferry would be departing- 15 hours later than expected, at 11pm on Sunday. We tried to see some of Athens with our newly acquired day, but the strike even shut down the famed acropolis, so we were outta luck. We still had a great day, ate souvlaki, and just lounged around in the hotel lobby for a few hours waiting for night, and our ferry, to come.

Finally the time arrived, and after a 3 km trek around the massive port we arrived at our ferry, a beautiful ship that put our last ferry to shame. The express service to Santorini took around 6 hours. I blogged about Munich and Venice for part of it and slept for a few hours before being awoken by the PA system announcing we were coming in to port.

Outside, it was still dark, but the outline of a huge cliff-lined island was visible through the shadows. It was like sailing into Jurrasic park, giant cliffs all around us, rising thousands of feet from the ocean. Lights from a distant town up on one of the hills shined down on us. After disembarking, we met our ride, a nice guy who was arranged by our hostel to pick us up. We were driven approximately 10 minutes to the town of Perissa Beach on the southeast part of the island. When we got out, it was indescribable. We were on a small street with shops and restaurants directly on the right and the ocean crashing right to our left- maybe 30 yards away. We walked up a tiny alleyway to our hostel, Anny's Studios. It was still dark out and we were disoriented and had no idea what anything actually looked like.

After we checked in and dropped our bags, we headed right out to the beach. The sun, still below the horizon, was beginning to light the sky and we could make out where we were. It was such a sight. The black sand beach went on and on to our right, but to our left, just a mile or so down the road rose a huge mountain out of nowhere that towered over the town. I snapped this picture in the low light:



After we slept til about noon, no longer tired from our overnight ferry, we walked out to the now bright beach. We had a great breakfast at one of the restaurants right at the ocean and then decided on an amazing activity for the day: rent ATVs. These little guys were only about 15€ for the day and gave us the independence to travel the entire island. We headed to the west side of the island, along the cliffs, down to the red sand beach, then headed all the way the other direction, through the largest town, Fira, for lunch and then to Santorini's postcard spot (and filming location of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) and cliffside town called Oia which was the most beautiful spot I have seen in Europe.

Going between these small towns on ATV was a dream true. I was channeling my inner Mario Kart as we whipped along waterfront roads and rolling hills. Yes... We all wore helmets.








As the sun started to set, we headed back towards Perissa Beach and went to the lighthouse to see the show. We were completely alone, climbing on the rocks and just enjoying the views. The fact that it was a bit cloudier than we would have liked didn't dampen our spirits at all. We ended up parking our ATVs on the side of a road and watching the lights.





We made a pit stop at a grocery store, made dinner back in our apartment/hostel and just relaxed for the night. It was also then that we got news of Osama's fateful demise... And trying to get the news while a few hundred miles off shore was an experience I doubt any of us will forget.

On our second day in Santorini, we decided to do what you are supposed to do on an island paradise: absolutely nothing. Well, almost. We did do a 2-hour hike up to ancient Thira (the original name of the island) to see some really old ruins and enjoy the views from the highest point on the island. Then, returning to Perissa Beach hot and sweaty, we grabbed some chairs on the beach and then later by the pool and just read and napped. it was awwweeeesome

That night we rang in Brownies birthday in style, first getting some authentic greek food at a nearby restaurant called Atlas. Run by a Canadian ex-pat (also named Dave) who came to Santorini 20 years ago and never left, the food was really good. I had Mousaka, a cheesy, eggplanty, ground beefy concoction cooked in a clay pot. So good. Dave the Canadian treated us to a shot of Raki, which is basically just Greek Moonshine; not as good as the Mousaka.

At night we went with some new hostel-friends to the two bars that were open on the beach and then watched the Caps blow game 3 to the Lightning on TV. It was a great, relaxing day.

Our final day on paradise was spent in much the same manner. The guys slept in after staying up til like 5 to watch the whole hockey game... So I took a nice long walk along the beach and enjoyed watching all of the shops and hotels further down digging out from a winter of closure- excited for tourist season, no doubt. Later, after the guys woke up, we went to a great Souvlaki pita place (for like the 8th souvlaki pita in 4 days) called Pepitos. Before we knew it, we were heading down to the port to meet our ferry back to mainland Greece. The ride back was incredible as we weaved through the islands, stopping in a few others to pick up more passengers. We got to Pireaus around midnight and took the train- which was now working normally- to Athens and to our hostel.

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We were told before we left that we only needed an afternoon or so in Athens, and I have to agree. Central Athens has the benefit of hosting The Acropolis with ruins from over 2,000 years ago- including the famed Parthenon. It is beautiful, but once you have seen it- there is not a plethora of other things to really do. We walked all throughout the ruins dodging the thundershowers and then headed back to our hostel to hang. We had amazing greek salads and pasta left over from Santorini for dinner and then enjoyed a night of sitting on the hostel's roof deck had absolutely amazing views of the Acropolis and the city in general.






This morning we departed Athens for the airport and were greeted with more travel complications: a strike- this time in Italy- closed the airport in Rome. Thank God for the EU, though, as the airline had to provide us with a 4.5€ voucher to be used at McDonald's. Finally though, we are airborne heading to our strike-ridden destination. Hopefully the trains will be running to get us from the airport to downtown!
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Greece is tough. It reminds me of Israel in that the people and the culture are inherently a bit rough around the edges, though they never mean any harm. Lines are non-existent, information is tough to obtain and often unreliable. However, like most things that are a bit difficult, Greece is definitely worth the hassle. I'm not exaggerating when I say Santorini is indescribably beautiful, and I am sure there are a thousand other islands that share its beauty. While Athens is a bit of an eyesore outside of the ruins, it is an ancient center of civilization and one of the most densely packed urban areas in the world. If only used as a gateway to the rest of the country, Athens is definitely worth a (short) trip. The islands, on the other hand: make sure you book a return ticket or you may never leave.

Enjoy the pictures. Talk to you from the *true* center of civilization: ROME!

A little change of pace

Greece has been quite an experience so far. Firstly, after arriving in peraious on Saturday night after our long ferry from Venice. We were all so happy to have our own beds after two nights of sleeping in transit. The hotel was run by the nicest Greek man, who informed us that he spent 1.5 years in Baltimore working before being deported.

There was a transportation strike in Athens which delayed our original ferry departure, so after a great night sleep we had a day to kill in athens before our fairly left for santorini at 11pm. We quickly found out that a transportation strike means no metro, so we had to find another way to get from the port to downtown Athens. After some confusion, and a talk with a Greek man, we got on a bus to Athens that was packed to the brim. It took us about an hour in these tight conditions to reach the city, where we learned that the strike also meant the acropolis and roman agora were also closed. So we spent the day walking through the flea market and using the wifi at our hotel. Finally, it was time to head to the port and we prayed the strike wouldnt create any further problems. Other than a small group of port workers, no further problems occurred and we arrived safely in santorini at 5am! I should comment that it was interesting to see the port workers chanting for communism after the struggles Greece has had under a capitalist system.

Now, santorini is amazing! We slept in this morning, which was much needed after another night in transit. After a nice breakfast by the black sand beaches, we rented ATVs and went on a wonderful adventure. We drove all over the entire island, which happens to be a big C. We had a blast driving around, i dont think any of us have ever had more fun. A 30 minute ride took us to the lighthouse on the west end with a beautiful view of... The east side of the island. We then went on a nice long ride all the way around the island to the east side, which has a town called Oia. This place is absolutely amazing, and the quintessential Greek isle. It feels completely isolated here, and it's a great escape from all the cities we've been in over the last month. I'm sure Greg will post pictures soon. After driving the entire island, we went back to the lighthouse to climb some rocks and watch the sunset. We ended our day with a nice pasta dinner cooked in our hostel. Then we sat on the beach with some beers and some dogs that befriended us. The dogs were very welcome visitors for all of us, and a nice source of entertainment. What a great way to end a fantastic day.

-Steve

Santorini!!

Munich! Venice! The Adriatic Sea!!

If you have followed this blog, or any before, you probably have realized that I love to update the blog with my thoughts. It comes as no surprise, then, that many of you have emailed wondering why lately the updates have been few and further in between. I can only tell you, we have been having so much fun it has literally been a struggle to sit down and write! But here we go.

MUNICH

Munich, and the state of Bavaria is like a young person's heaven. The self-proclaimed world capital of beer, a thrilling history, beautiful sights and a vibrant population all combine to create a city that was so hard to leave we extended our stay by 24 hours (read on).

We arrived on Sunday- a week ago- and found a great hostel that was only a few minutes from the Haubtbanhof (main train station). Our hostel had a great bar with really friendly staff and other customers and after stashing our bags we went downstairs for a quick drink. One sip of Berlin's famous "Augustiner" beer and we were hooked.

The following morning was easter Monday, and after a great all-you-can-eat breakfast, we headed out to Munich's main square to participate in a free tour of the city. Our tour guide was Liz, a nice british gal who led us around the city with a hilarious and exciting look into Munich's medieval and more recently, Nazi history. I had heard that the Nazi party had gotten its start as a working-class party in Bavaria but I never knew the details. For instance, Hitler was arrested and held in Munich after holding government officials hostage at a beer hall one day- but his trial was such a joke it was nicknamed the circus. Even though he spent time in prison, it was in his Munich cell that "Mein Kampf" was written and he was released after only 9 months. As he took over the city over the next 10 years, many of the decisions he made in munich carried over to the whole of Germany in the years that followed. It was really, really interesting to see all of this played out in front of us.

After the tour, we decided to participate in another tour of sorts, this one of Munich's greatest achievement- its beer. Munich takes drinking beer to a whole new level. It is like The Olympics of beer drinking. For one thing, the sizes are ridiculous: small is a half-liter, most places serve giant Liters as the norm. Second: instead of packing into tiny dark bars to consume their pride and joy, Munichers have perfected the art of drinking socially in Beer Halls and Beer Gardens. Essentially, these massive areas are full of benches and tables, are always open seating and provide gargantuan mugs of beer as well as manly food like half-chickens and pigs' legs. They are always full of locals who are laughing with friends and family and it is very common to bring your young children along.

Our tour (nicknamed the "Size Matters Beer Tour") took the three of us and about 30 others to a few of the city's most famous drinking establishments while providing us with some history, a lot of beer drinking know-how and a lot of entertainment with our new friends. The leader of the pack was named "The Bear" and as you might imagine, he and Steve were best buds about 4 minutes into the tour. At the end of the trip, Steve (called by everyone "Bear number two") was awarded the prestigious beer-drinking-liter-mug-award for his service and entertainment to the group. I don't think I have ever seen steve so happy as when he was declared the winner after 5 hours of touring Munich's greatest hits. Along the way, we met some great friends: Deep and Om from UTexas, Kevin who was traveling home after working for months in Antarctica, Paulette from Canada, as well as a venerable who's who of characters from all over the world- each of which became crazier and crazier as they started knocking back their liters of beer.


The next day, Tuesday was- forgive the pun- a much sobering experience. We decided to head out to Dakau, the Nazi's first concentration camp and the only one that lasted the entire length of the war. None of us had ever been to a concentration camp before, and I can tell you that it was a sad and moving tour through the depths of history. It brought the holocaust to a level I did not think possible, while still reminding me that I could never even begin to imagine the conditions that so many people faced only a few years ago. The tour took us through the old gates of the camp, the old headquarters, barracks as well as the crematorium and gas chambers. Nothing I can say can describe being there, and being there only scratches the surface of such a terrible history. To me, being there- however painful it is- reminds the world that this was a very real chapter of history that can never be forgotten. Being there honors the millions who died.

On that subject, Munich as a city decides to remember the years of nazi leadership with a much quieter strategy than their brothers and sisters in Berlin. While it's nearly impossible to miss the history while in Berlin with their huge memorials every city block, Munich quietly leaves clues around to validate their history. While I appreciated both strategies, I worry that as the years pass, the meanings of such small memorials in Munich will be forgotten. It is up to its citizens and governments to make sure this is never the case.

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That night, we decided to head down the street to another of Berlin's most famous beer halls, where we had an incredible experience. After sitting down next to a nice german family, we started examining the menu. A few minutes later, three English-speaking girls were walking by, looking for a seat. The hilarious German waiter, realizing that there were three English-speaking males only a few feet away from these three English-speaking ladies could not help himself. He grabbed them and ushered them towards us, banging on our table to get us to scooch down to accommodate them. As he had a laugh at the potentially awkward situation he had just created, the 6 of us got to talking. Becca, Brianne, and Nicole were sophomores from Union College in New York State, on a 2-month study abroad program in Germany. Like us, they were in transit in Munich, stopping for a few days before moving on to a new city (for them, Berlin).

Over the next 2 hours we shared great food, amazing beer and even better conversation. As all 6 of us were in relationships back home, the pressure was off and before we knew it, they were heading back to our hostel-bar with us to take advantage of the free beer tickets we had racked up the night before. We exchanged emails and said goodnight and just laughed at how a seemingly random event had given us such an entertaining night.


The next day, Wednesday, was to be our last in Munich. Having so much fun, we decided to extend our stay by 24 hours and leave for Venice on the night train Thursday night instead. For the day, we headed out on the Subway ("S-Bahn") to Munich's grand Olympic park, the host of two games and the infamous massacre of israeli athletes in 1972. The park was amazingly beautiful with the famous Olympic stadium built into the landscape in a unique top-down design. We moseyed around, enjoying the sights and playing hackie sack on the banks of the huge lake that dominates the park. After, we headed to BMW World Headquarters where we acted like little boys, walking among the shiny cars, imagining what it would be like to speed down the Autobahn in one.

When we returned to our hostel, we decided to meet up with our friends from the night before, who were planning on going to the same place we had met them at. We agreed on a meeting time and headed out there. When we finally saw them later, they had brought their entire study-abroad program- like 8 additional girls- to the beer hall. We sat down with them, laughed about the randomness of it all and then had another great dinner and drinks. We ran into our waiter from the day, who was proud to see that he had set up three American boys with like 10 other girls. As the night went on he got us drinks and even posed for pictures with us. A German tuba band even made an appearance and, after hearing that we were Americans, they did a rousing rendition of The Star Spangled Banner that made me laugh so hard for about 5 minutes straight. You literally cannot make this stuff up. It was a great night. We were sorry to see our new friends go- but such is traveling; cool people come into your life so quickly and so intensely and then vanish in the same way. It always reminds me that there are so many people out in the world to go and befriend. It shouldn't take the audacity of a German waiter to meet some of them, but it doesn't hurt when it does.


Our last day in Munich there was no availability in our hostel, so we had headed down the street to The Courtyard where 'Ma and 'Pa Lessans treated us to a great night of western-style accommodation. After sleeping in all morning long, we had an amazing breakfast and then took our time getting moving while we booked hostels for the remainder of the trip.

Finally, in the afternoon we went to the English Gardens, the largest Municipal park in the world and relaxed all day. After a great nap on the grass and a great afternoon of people-watching we headed back. Before we knew it we were saying goodbye to Munich and off on a night train to Venice, Italy.



VENICE

after a mostly sleepless night in a train compartment, we arrived at 6:30 or so to the famous canal city of Venice.

Venice was incredible. There is literally one road in and out and then all canals. To get around, you hop on city boats that motor down the canals like busses on a freeway. In the morning, hundreds of small delivery boats flew by dropping off products everywhere. Unfortunately, since everything- everything- is delivered via boat and then hand-trucked to its destination, prices are through-the-roof. As 3 budget travelers, staying in Venice for more than a few hours would have broken the bank, but being there that long was an experience in itself.

We followed Rick Steve's self-guided tour down the grand canal as we got a crash course in venetian history and architecture. We continued all the way down to the famed St. Mark's square with its equally famous pigeons who are so severely domesticated that they land on you without thinking twice. We met a nice American couple who were traveling with their kids (who, having brought bread crumbs for the birds, were being mauled by about 35 hungry pigeons).

We walked about, paid the outrageous €1.50 to use the toilet (to get the full venetian experience), and walked all the way back to the north of the island, winding through the tiny back streets and crossing over the canals.

Venice is unlike any other place in the world- it just takes your breath away. I can't wait to return one day when I have much more moolah :-)


FERRY TO GREECE

We departed Venice 8 hours after arriving on a Minoan Lines ferry that would take us all the way to the West coast of Greece after a 30 hour transit. This mammoth crossing was included in our Eurail pass, so we were not quick to complain. We tied down some airplane-like seats on the 7th deck and just relaxed for 2 days. On the way, we passed islands all around the Adriatic Sea. It was beautiful.

I was very happy to be back on the water, and I couldn't contain the thousands of SAS memories that bubbled to the surface. I really enjoyed it :-)

Saturday night at 8pm, we arrived to the port city of Patras, Greece on the west coast of the country- and our greek adventure began. But that will have to wait for another blog...

Currently, as I write this we are on another ferry- this one from Athens to the island of Santorini. I have heard so many good things about Santorini and I can't wait to arrive (even though our arrival is set for 4:45 in the morning, haha). As I wrote this blog I kept taking breaks to go out to the outside promenade on the side of the ship to just watch the waves roll by. Back on Semester at Sea, I used to love going out on the promenades at night to just look at all the darkness, and I love it out here just the same. There is something so liberating about being out in the middle of the ocean- I'm hooked.

Can't wait to update you again in a few days.

Talk soon, thanks for reading,

Greg






- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Lets get you guys caught up

A heads up, this blog is being posted from Greece(we just got in and finally have internet), was written on the ferry from Venice and is about Munich.

Wow! What a great few days in Munich. The moment we got to our hostel around 10pm, sat down and had a beer, we joked about staying longer if we were having fun. And that's exactly what we did.

So let's talk about Munich. A beautiful historic city kept that way because of the people. The people here do not like change (remind you of someone), so much so that before ww2 they took pictures of all the buildings so that after all the damage they would be able to rebuild exactly the same way. You can still see some buildings not badly damaged just have the old design painted over like a movie set. A far change from Berlin who has decided to go modern in every respect. There is one more interesting difference between Berlin and Munich, but i'll get to that later.

The other thing they love is beer. Munich arguably has he best beer in the world. Sadly to the rest of the world they do not export any of it. Oh, except the current Pope who is from here. Vatican City is the only place in the world the beer is shipped. He says that because it is his favorite beer, it is also God's favorite beer. Go figure.

On our first full day, we did a walking tour as we do in every city and learned a ton including some of the interesting facts I shared with you already. On a more serious topic, we learned about how Hitler and the Nazi party began here. Due to hyper inflation and unemployment, Germany was in shambles after ww1 and extreme political parties began to combat the situation. Hitler quickly rose in the ranks in the Nazi party and failed in his first big demonstration here when he attempted to kidnap 3 high government officials and tried to get them to join the Nazis. This failure led to him being sent to jail where he infamously wrote his novel and only served 11 months of a 5 year sentence from a trial that was a joke in the first place because the judges were Nazi sympathizers. Then we learned that other interesting difference between Berlin and Munich I hinted at earlier. Berlin's monuments and memorials to ww2 and the holocaust are designed in a way that smacks you in the face and says, "Hey, look at me! Don't forget this happened!" Munich on the other hand takes a much more subtle approach. For instance, we were on the tour and began walking on a side road with golden cobble stones in a distinct path. The guide soon stopped and began telling us the story of how there was a spot around the corner where when you walked past it, you had to give the Nazi salute. There was a soldier stationed there so if you didn't, he would beat you. The disgruntled and brave anti-Nazi citizens through protest would puposefully take a different route so they didn't pass this area. Although the Nazis caught on eventually, the golden path lays here today in rememberance. And as I said before, with Munich's different style, this path is not marked or explained anywhere. Their reasoning behind their style is that it forces people to notice these sights and look it up later or ask someone on their own and therefore will remember it better. I've gone back and forth on which style is better and although I personally think there could be a happy medium between the two, both get the job done. On an individual level, we all remember and grieve losses in our own way but as long as the end result is the same, countries, and in this case cities, can do the same. Boom! Knowledge bomb.

That night our hostel was hosting a beer tour. We joined, along with our new friend, Kevin, who we befriended on the tour earlier. Quick note about Kevin, he is currently traveling across the globe on his way home from his job... on Antartica.

The tour was so much fun. Steve met his lost brother. He was our guide who being a Canadian and hockey fan was also called by his friends, The Bear. As he began the tour he tempted us all by offering a free mug to the person in the group that takes part in everything and helps the group as a whole have fun. Greg and I met eyes and called it, our one and only Bear, Steve, won and is now lugging around a 1 liter beer mug. A true testiment to Steve being the winner, we walked into the hostel 2 days later and all of a sudden we hear one of the guides from the tour go,"The Bear" as Steve walked by. Local Munich celebrity we got here.

The next day we did one thing you have to do when in Munich, and that is going to the concentration camp, Dachau. Needless to say it was a heavy experience. I have been to holocaust and ww2 museums all over the world but to physically be walking around the same grounds was something new. I liked how our tour guide said the word 'imagine' is an understatment because you can never fully imagine what it was like.

That night after a nap we went to a beer garden for dinner. Beer gardens have the coolest concept. On the same property of a brewery or kennel that holds loads of beer, put a restaurant filled with long tables and hearty food and just let people enjoy. We were sat at a table with a family and were soon greeted by what would become one of my favorite waiters of all time. After asking for english menus he knew we were American and soon after sat 3 girls at our table. "English( pointed to us), english( pointed to he girls), sit sit."

We eventually got to talking and after our 1-liter beers and delicious half chicken with potato salad dinners the group friendship was born. The girls( ugly of course compared to our lovely girlfriends, haha) were studying abroad in Germany for the semester from Union College in New York. The dinner was made better by a great waiter who joked with us and made fun of Greg and I when we only got half liters. After dinner we invited the girls back to our hostel to help us get rid of some free beers we had left over from the beer tour the previous night. Now before you all get suspicious, it should be made aware that throught the course of conversation we all talked about our girlfriends and how awesome they are. We even agreed on our way back that they were only staying for one drink and we were not gonna walk them home, perfect. A fun night ended with us watching episodes of Modern Family on Greg's ipad. Great show.

The next day we went to Olympic Park where the infamous 1972 games were held where terrorists kidnapped and killed the Israeli athletes. Although we did not learn much more in our visit we talked about the movie Munich and the Israeli retaliation. We spent a lot of time in front of a pond playing hackey sack. We got 3 hacks in a row!

That night we were headed to the English Gardens( park with outdoor beer garden that is also home to the famous Chinese Tower). But the forecast called for rain. Instead we went back to the same beer garden as the previous night and met up with the same girls who brought the other 5 girls in their group. It was another fun night made special by a tubba and trumpit player playing the national anthem, because they knew we were American, and we saw our great waiter from the night before. When he and Greg made eye contact, Greg jokingly pointed to the girls then gave him a thumbs up and he loved it. He later came over and laughed about it. He even at one point shooed(sp?) away a guy we were talking to because he thought he was hitting on the girls. Little did he know nothing romantic would come of his accidental match making but the moment was hilarious. After dinner we went and crashed at our hotel for the night.

On our final day, we relaxed for a while and we booked the rest of our hostels. Crazy right? Then as the weather cleared up we walked to the English Gardens, had one more German beer and a snack before getting ready for the night train.

We are now on a boat from Venice to Greece and because of our extension in Munich, a day later then we originally planned. But that's the beauty of this trip. We made it and can change it whenever we want.

We spent a perfect 7ish hours in Venice. The night train here was crappy. Very uncomfortable chairs made it a rough sleep. But we hit a 2nd wind getting to a new city. Took a boat( which is their metro) to San Marco Square and walked back seeing all the major sights. We agreed," we'll come back to Venice one day with our wives."

Leaving Venice by boat was a wonderful experience. I know Steve will be mentioning it too and it's funny because we were both on different parts of the ship at the time. My feeling was a mix between Jack from Titanic's " I'm the king of the world" and Lou Gehrig's "Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth." I realize how fortunate I am to to be on this adventure. Not many people have the time or money etc to do this and I appreciate all of this so much.

We just got into Piraeus, Greece and have spent the last 45 minutes calling home as we hadn't talked to anyone for 2 days. The ferry from Venice was an experience. As we got on we saw people claiming floor spots and chairs like it was America in the 1800s claiming land in the mid-west. Sleeping bags and coolers came out as to mark their territory. We were able to snag chairs and slept on the floor with the seat cushions from the chair as a mattress with a short over my eyes because the lights wouldn't turn off. But now we are in our hotel, taking warm showers and each have a bed. Happy days.

Okay, there ya have it. Hope all is well with all of you.

Dave

IM ON A BOAT!!

We have just pulled out of the port of Venice on a Greek cruise boat headed for patras Greece. It has been a long day of traveling to get to Venice (via a night train from Munich) and we still have 27 hours on this boat with no room or bed. But among all this traveling, 30 minutes of watching the floating city go by has truly allowed the gravity and wonder of this trip to set in for me. It is truly unbelievable to be sailing along the Italian coast towards Greece and I am so thankful to have this opportunity. But enough of that, on to other things.

I know Dave will update soon with a thorough report on Munich, so just a few thoughts from me. It is truly my kind of place. Most people reading this know I am a fan of good beer and good food, and they do both better than anyone in the world there. All over the city there are beer halls and biergartens (beer gardens) with large wooden picnic tables. At any of these you can get a great Bavarian beer, a meal of large portions of meat and potatoes, and an environment full of singing, tuba playing and just plain old good fun. We had the pleasure of meeting a group of American girls from new York who were studying abroad in frieburg and on their way to a second month of studying in Berlin. Shout out to them if they are reading our blog, YOLO! In addition to the beer and food, Munich is home to the largest municipal garden in Europe known as the englisch garten. The outdoors is another one of my favorite things, and this park does not disappoint, kinda looks like the shire. It is enormous and contains a small river, a Chinese tower, and it's own beer garden.

We also spent a day at the dachau concentration camp, this was a truly chilling experience. It is one thing to see museums dedicated to the holocaust, and a completely different experience to stand on the same grounds where the terrible acts occured. I could not put into words the emotions that came over me while standing in a gas chamber. Yet, I must say, it is still quite difficult to really imagine what it must have been like there between 1938 and 1945.

We decided to only spend half a day in Venice because we heard its expensive and more of a place for lovers. (No comments please, we all know that there is a serious love triangle on this trip.) we took a quick cruise down the main canal this morning and then slowly weaved our way back through the city to the port. We saw San Marco piazza which is as beautiful as in all the movies you've seen it in. The canals were also unbelievable to see in person after seeing them so many times in movies as well. I hope I can get back to venice for longer some day when I can afford to fully enjoy it.

For now, the skies are clear as Venice shrinks behind us. Hopefully the weather remains nice as way continue to Greece.

Ciao!
-The Bear

Heading out of Munich (not the Munich blog!)

Hey all!

Munich has been non-stop fun since we arrived, hence our sporadic updates.

Here is our plan for the next few days:

Tonight: leaving from Munich on Night Train to Venice
Tomorrow: Venice until 14:00, then taking Ferry all the way from Venice to Patras Greece
Saturday: Arriving Patras, Greece around 20:00, taking bus to Port of Pireaus in Athens, Greece (a few hours away). Sleeping for a few hours in a hotel in Pireaus
Sunday Morning: Boarding Ferry to Santorini. Arriving Santorini around 15:00 and we will finally be in one place for a few days.

So you will probably hear from us in the next few days as we update about Munich, Venice, and our crazy 25-hour ferry ride across the mediterranean!

Talk to you soon!

Greg

Quick note from Munich

Hey everyone,

So I know all of you are at work updating this page constantly to check for new blog posts. On behalf of the group, I am sorry but we are having too much fun to blog. Tomorrow night we take a night train to Venice, so in a day or two you will have proper blogs. But for now, here's a quick update.

Munich has been a blast. So much so that we decided to extend our stay another day. We've done the walkig tour, olympic park, bmw welt(showroom) and the concentration camp, Dachau. And of course, being in Bavaria we did a beer tour and have gone to multiple beer gardens.

On another note, today is the one month mark of the trip. And what an incredible month it has been. While in a city, time moves normally but looking back, the time has flown by.

There's an update for ya. More detailed blogs coming soon. See you in a month!

First, before we talk about Prague, I should tell you about how I split up the group a few days back in order to go visit my family.

Leaving Berlin, the guys headed straight for Prague while I detoured and hopped a train to Nuremberg in Eastern Germany. In a small army post about 30 minutes north of N-Berg, my cousin Lydia lives with her 6 awesome kids. I haven't seen them since they moved to Germany from The States, so I was really looking forward to it. After a day of traveling, I arrived in the small town of Vilseck and met Lyd at the station with the kids.

I had a great night visiting with everyone- and it also happened to be Lydia's birthday, so I was lucky to get sone of the celebratory dessert. After the kids went to bed, Lydia and I stayed up talking and just catching up. It was a really nice chance to see her, and a welcome break from the rigors of traveling. I went to sleep in Lydia's oldest son's room, and found a few presents waiting for me in the top bunk: dolls that made noise when touched inside the pillows and a huge plastic spider down by my feet. It was pretty hilarious.

The next day, the 7 of us took off for Nuremberg. They had all been there plenty before, but they offered to be my tour guides for a few hours. Nuremberg was such a quaint little Bavarian town, complete with open air markets, lots of grand churches and a huge castle that overlooks the whole thing. We all had a great time running up and around the castle, eating ice cream- just enjoying everything.
















When I said goodbye to everyone at the train station I was genuinely sad to see them go. I am really lucky to have such awesome family all around the world and it was so great to- even for just a day- see some of them. I can't wait for them to come visit :-)

I said goodbye, grabbed my bag and headed East toward Prague (and my two handsome travel partners).

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Prague is one of the most naturally beautiful cities I have ever been to in my life. The story goes like this: when Hitler was planning world domination, he decided he would have a political capital in Munich, and a "cultural capital" in the city of Prague. For that reason, the city was spared the destruction that most of Europe faced, and has some of the oldest, grandest buildings on the continent as a result.

When I arrived in Prague, I made my way to the hotel where the guys were waiting for me. It was, most importantly, The Bear's 23rd birthday!! They had already picked out an amazing mexican restaurant not far from where we were in the North of the city. I ordered a burrito and enjoyed every bite... I think I miss Mexican food more than anything else at home (sorry, family). Afterwards, we went to a local Prague bowling alley nearby. This was very not-touristy, and we managed to jump on one of the four lanes that were there. Because it was Steve's birthday, Dave and I planned to let him win at bowling... Which he did quite easily.

The next morning, after absolutely stuffing our face in the included breakfast buffet, we walked down into Old Town and did another free tour, this time with a canadian girl from Vancouver. Over 3 hours or so we saw most of the sights in Prague, including the famed Charles bridge, the Jewish Quarter, powder tower, the cathedral and lots of others.

Interestingly, Hitler left the Jewish Quarter intact because he wanted it to serve as a museum of the extinct Jewish people. What an ass. Either way, his asshole-ness is our gain, because now there are two beautiful synagogues that are hundreds of years old, along with lots of other old Jewish buildings.

Mostly though, the thing to do in Prague is just walk around with your eyes open. The city is stunningly beautiful, an incredible mix of extremely old and new. The open markets at city center offer great street food and these tasty rolled dough desserts that I kept coming back for.








The following day, we conquered Prague Castle, allegedly the largest castle compound in the world. It sits up on a hill overlooking the entire town and e river, and from ground level it seriously looks like Hogwarts. We took a combination of trams to the top and then saw the sights while descending back to ground level. The most prominent feature, St. Vitus' Cathedral was started over 700 years ago and the stained glass inside is absolutely stunning. With the help of trusty old Rick, we learned about the significance of different things while just enjoying the beautiful views of the city below.





At night, we went to an American bar in town because we heard that they were playing the Capitals vs. Rangers NHL hockey playoff game. We had a great time watching the caps win the series and then topped off the night with a midnight stroll around old town and Charles Bridge. As beautiful as the city is during the day, it doesn't hold a candle to it once the sun has gone down. It is absolutely stunning.




Today was spent doing laundry and then lazily walking around the city, my favorite activity in a foreign place. Since it was Easter Sunday, the crowds were out in force and it was fun to just walk around, up and down the Charles Bridge watching the street performers, artists and musicians do their thing. Before we knew it, it was back to the train station, final food shopping and then Prague was in the rearview mirror.

And here we are, about 1.5 hours away from the Bavarian city of Munich. We have so far held down our own compartment from intruders for the past 4 hours or so by using an ingenious method of pretending we are sleeping every time people try and join us. Hah! Genius!

We are so excited for Munich, Prague was absolutely beautiful and we hear that Munich has so much to offer!

Enjoy the pictures, and then book a ticket to Prague!!!

Greg