The Whole Fam-damily, or Bavarian Travels

..And my ridiculous travel lifestyle continues.
The day after I get back from New York, my family flies into Munich. It was really good to see them, considering I hadn't seen them since September. They spent the first day (Saturday) in Munich, meaning my brother slept most of the afternoon and my parents napped and then got lost in the city. Really fun trying to guide them around via cellphone. That night we went to Starkbierfest, which is a bierfest during Lent when the Monks would brew stronger beer to feed themselves because they were fasting and needed to eat something...? Doesn't really make a whole lot of sense, but it's a fun excuse to sing along to old American pop music and dance on tables and drink Maßes. It also meant that the first introduction my parents had to my friends was a drunk, table-dancing one. Quite the first impression, I would say. I think they enjoyed it though. My parents really loved the old music (think Elvis, Sinatra, the soundtrack to the first Dirty Dancing) and my dad and my brother got drunk and my mom just took lots of pictures. I've never seen my dad drunk before, so that was a lot of fun.
The next day we headed out to Schliersee, a smaller bavarian town cuz that's where our timeshare was for the next week. It was a beautiful place. The weather was still kind of cold and the lake was frozen over, but it was still really pretty. Crystal and Jana came out to visit us one day and also we did day trips to Salzburg, Neuschwanstein, Zugspitze, and just hung out at the hotel, played pool, sat in the hot tub!!, and just relaxed. I'd been all those places but it was cool to take a fresh pair of eyes there and to spend time with my family. Also, I finally got to go into the Catacombs in Salzburg. Really cool. Really creepy....but really cool. I was picturing like secret meetings and underground religious cults but I was disappointed when I found out that wasn't the point of the caves and catacombs. And apparently the little chapel in the cave is still used today. I thought that was cool.
It was a nice trip but I was definitely reminded of the things about my family that bothered me, rationally or irrationally. The weather was fairly good while my family was here so it was nice to be able to walk around in only about two layers instead of the usual 10. Maybe that's an exaggeration, but not by much. Munich winters are freeeezzzing. So not fun.

The next Saturday we came back to Munich and I gave my parents the tour of the city. We went to the Residenz, Frauenkirche, Marienplatz; all the typical, cool, tourist sites that I walk by all the time and that I really should notice more often. The curse of living in a beautiful place. It all kind of blends in at some point. We also went to Dachau, which was a major downer. I'd never been to Dachau before but I have been to a concentration camp so I sort of knew what kind of mental effect it had on me but my family didn't. It was a rough part of the trip. Concentratin camps are never fun places to visit.

That Monday was really sad because we had to say goodbye to my brother and dad. :( It was really, really good to see the family and let them see what my life was like here. I miss them already but I will see them soon enough. I just wish everyone I know could move over here cuz I never want to leave Europe but that's a side tangent. The next installment of my European travels is coming. Slowly but surely, I will catch up on this blog.

New York: A brief re-entry Stateside

So I decided that I would wander over the ocean for a brief little bit cuz I had lot of time to kill. It was a great trip. It was only about ten days but lots of fun. I've never really been to New York before so being able to see it was cool. I don't think I could ever live there but it was fun to visit. I hung out with some friends there and saw my cousin for a bit. This is gonna be a shorter post, just some of the highlights of the trip, but it was a good little interlude in my European travels.
I hung out at Union Square one day and was just chilling, reading a german book and this one guys asks me what I'm reading. So I say, "it's a German book," which prompts the guy sitting next to me to start speaking to me in German. Turns out, he's Italian and speaks French, Italian, German, Spanish and English and is trying to major in art in New York. Anyway, we start talking about Europe and life in general and then a bunch of his homeless friends show up and they join the conversation and there's another kid from Spain. It was a great little European reunion. I spent a couple hours with these kids and it was eye-opening for me. All these kids were either homeless, drug addicts, really poor, or down on their luck. It was not a group that I've ever encountered or hung out with before and it was fun for an afternoon. We actually had some good conversations and compared life in the US vs. life in Europe. It just made me feel very blessed that I come from the background that I come from. I do not envy that lifestyle at all.
Another day my friend and I walked around Battery Park and gazed upon the Statue of Liberty. One day I will get there... We also walked around Central Park and saw the Metropolitan Musuem. Wow. What a building. What amazing collections in there. You could spend a week in that museum and not see everything. It was fun.

Like I said this was gonna be a short post, but one of my favorite parts of the trip was all the American food I got to eat! Hamburgers, bacon, hot breakfast food, Rootbeer, tastycakes, cheddar cheese :). I gorged myself the entire time. It was great. It was a nice, short little excursion stateside that was a reminder of the (short) list of things I missed about the States and the (ridicuously long) list of things I love about Europe. Then it was back to my Europe adventures. To be continued in the next post...

Eurotrip: Athens (or the city of dogs, pretending to be dead)

BY FAR my favorite. Absolutely fell in love with Athens. We flew in around 13:00 and met up with our host, Jannis. He showed up his apartment. So amazing! It was one of the nicer apartments I've been in. We had our own room and and had full use of the kitchen. He unfortunately had no coffee machine...
Anyway, he was a yoga instructor so he couldn't really show us around but gave us all sorts of tips and maps. He was also in his 40s so I guess we would have gone to different joints to hang out in but the maps and tips were incredibly helpful. The first day we unpacked, went to dinner at this Greek restuaurant whose name I don't remember, nor could I spell it cuz it was in Greek. By the way, Greek is a ridiculous language! Since LC has no Greek system, I have never had a reason to learn the letters of the Greek alphabet and I had a lot of fun walking around looking at funny shaped letters that looked like toys to me. Jana didn't find the letters nearly as amusing or confusing as I did, but she's in a sorority and deals with them in math so she had seen them before. Me. no idea. Really want to learn the Greek alphabet though.
Regardless that was so off-topic. The Greek restuarant was really good and the feta cheese in Greece in unbelievably good! It helps that I love cheese, but the feta was amazing. Anyway, got dinner that night, walked around the area where Jannis lived, found a bank and then came back and watched a movie and passed out.
The next day was Wednesday. This was important because Wednesday happened to be the day when everyone in Athens was on strike to get better wages. Great for them, bad for tourists. Jana and I walked around more of Athens, walked up to the Parthenon but it was closed due to the strike. We walked to Zeus's Temple, which was also closed due to the strike. We then walked to the Stadium, that had been renovated for the Olympics and is never closed to observers. It is closed to work out in, but we just wanted to look at it so everything was ok. We also saw FC Barcelona there. Really cool. From there we walked to the top of Lycabettus Hill. Three remarkable things about it: 1) The walk to the top of Lycabettus Hill is very long and constantly uphill. 2) The view of Athens from the top is one of the most jaw-dropping things I've ever seen. It was so pretty! The only minor downside is that there was a minor layer of pollution but it was still beautiful. 3) We saw three turtles on the walk up and down. Three! We asked someone about the turtles later and they said they hadn't seen one in a couple of years. Maybe we just got lucky.
Anyway, we got done admiring the view and walked down to catch a bus to Syntagma, the main square in Athens. We finally made it into the square after some directional issues and ate dinner at another good restuarant that I can't write down. Getting home from there was the fun part. So...this is still Wednesday. Which means the entire city was still on strike. Which meant none of the subways were running. Which meant we were more or less stranded in the middle of Syntagma where all of the signs were written in a language with a different alphabet. We ended up working past all of these roadblocks and finally catching a bus to our stop. However, we couldn't really tell where our stop was so we ended up getting off two stops early and had to walk to our stop. And once we got there, we realized we didn't recognize anything cuz we normally got there by subway and not by bus. We resorted to calling Jannis and he gave us directions, which were actually amazingly simple. Life is never dull when Jana and I travel.The next day we successfully went to the Parthenon, where we discovered that entrance to any historical site in Athens is free if you are a student at a European university. Go us. So we walked around the Parthenon, saw the Theatre of Dionysus, and drank in the beauty of the ancient Greek ruins. It was amazing. I loved all of it. And the day was beautiful and clear so it made walking around enjoyable. After that, we explored the area at the base of the Parthenon, including Ancient Agora. Another really beautiful experience. I even did push-ups in the former Roman gymnasium. I'm so cool. :) Ancient Agora was the old city/city center. It was really cool to walk around. Like most of ancient Athens, a lot of Ancient Agora was in ruins but it was still neat. I prefer old Greek churches to most European styles of architecture. The only downer to this day was that Jana's wallet got stolen. Whoever stole it was really sneaky because we can't figure out how they ever got a chance or could fit their hand in her bag. But somehow her wallet dissappeared.
On Friday, we visited the Acropolis musuem. Really cool! They have a reanimation of the history of the Parthenon and what it would have looked like when it was first built. There was also all sorts of artifacts and little tidbits about Greek history. I really enjoyed the musuem a lot. Also, it was interesting because the musuem was built on ruins, what archeologists believe to be part of the ancient road of Greece, and you walk over clear glass panels to look onto the ruins below you. Quite a unique experience. After that we went to the beach and spent a couple hours there. Except for a really creepy encounter with one dude, it was a great afternoon. We "swam " in the Mediterrean (February = cold water. Shock right?), drank wine, hung out, and just relaxed. It felt so good. And watching the sunset over the Mediterrean was amazing! So pretty...I never wanted to leave. Except the sun did actually set and it got cold, so that was kind of a buzz kill.Anyway, Saturday was (supposed to be) our last day in Athens. So we got up early, walked to the Temple of Zeus and explored that area for a little bit. It was cool to see but almost completely destroyed so there wasn't as much as I wanted there to be but still cool. We went back to Jannis's, got our bags and went to the airport.
Here's where it gets fun. So supposed to be our last day? Turns out we had misread the time
when our flight was and so we got to the airport right as it was taking off. Needless to say, I was livid. I had had a great time on the trip, it was amazing and fun and excited and I learned a lot, but I was ready to go home. I wanted my own room, different clothes, etc. So we sitting in the airport trying to figure out how to get home, me trying to control my temper. Turns out the only thing that we can swing financially is getting on the next EastJet flight the next day (Sunday) and spending another night in Athens. Cool.
As luck would have it, there happened to be a CS meet that night in Athens. So we roll up with all our shit and we're tired and hungry and I'm still sort of angry and start talking to all these people. We meet Tareq and Elias, who kindly offer to let us stay with them for the night and take us out to a club. So we drive out to their place, the others go out and I stay in cuz I was too tired to go out.
Anyway, the next day we pack our bags, head to the airport and FINALLY get to Berlin. It was cheaper to fly to Berlin than it was to fly to Munich, cuz Munich is annoying that way. So it then takes us all of Monday to get back to Munich (the day Jana was supposed to start work) and when we finally got back, I was so happy. I've never been happier to see Stusta. It was a convulated, exciting, and frustrating adventure at the end of our amazing trip. So many good stories and memories, even the ones that were less-than-positive at the time.

Eurotrip: Rome

Rome was a love\hate thing for me. We started off on the wrong foot. We got in late and were really tired. It took a little while to find our hostel and when we did find it, it was not ok. I mean, it was a bed for one night but that was about it. We did run into three kids from Miami who were studying abroad in Spain and they were cool, but that was perhaps the only redeeming factor about the place.
Our second day there, we tried to find another hostel but our internet was sketchy. So we got dressed (it was really warm for us, so we were wearing very little in comparsion to everyone else and got a lot of attention) and walked around trying to find decently priced internet. Finally succeeded and actually ended up with a Couchsurfer, which was awesome. After we figured that out, we went to the Colleseum, Palatine Hill (I live there!), and the Roman Forum. It was so cool! I loved the Colleseum. It was like a dream for me. The Romans did amazing, albeit bloody things, and especially did cool things in the theatre world. The Collesuem was (is) a work of art and I would love to go inside the center and explore it. I had so much fun there. It was awesome. Except for the stupid guys who got us to pay them 10 Euro for taking our picture with them. They had dressed up in traditional soldier garb and conned us. I suppose it happens, but it wasn't fun either way. I learned. We hopped on a tour of the Colleseum, Palatine Hill, and the Roman Forum. It was quite helpful and really funny. We had great tour guides. I now have all sorts of useless facts floating around in my head. The Roman Forum was also amazing. I stood not five feet away from where Julius Ceasar was allegedly cremated. Cool...We did a lot of wandering around after that, saw more cool old things, and eventually ended up at the Trevia Fountain. Unfortunately, there was a lot of people there so the first picture didn't turn out so well. We wandered back to the hostel to pick our stuff up and meet our Couchsurfer, Andrea. He was really cool, despite the fact that I called him earlier that morning and woke him up. Oops. :) He lived outside the city so he drove us out there. We made dinner, hung out, watched the Olympics, and went to bed.

The next morning we packed and leisurely went back to the city. Andrea couldn't host us another night but he did make our Rome experience much better because up til that point, our impression wasn't the best. That day we had planned on going to the Vatican and St. Peters Basilica but sadly only made it through the Vatican. I was underwhelmed, to be honest. I don't know what I expected but it wasn't that. The museums were geat and the art collections were cool (the guy selling us the tickets even told us that we were "18" so we got a reduced entrance price) but I wanted to see secret catacombs, the Pope, the Popemobile, the old men of the Clergy and conspiracy. Maybe I read too much Dan Brown.

Anyway, by the time we got out of the Vatican it was too late to go the St. Peters. We walked to the Pantheon. Such a ridiculous building. How on earth does the roof of that thing stand up? I really don't get that. I felt like it was gonna collapse on me at any minute. Or that it was floating. Also, the floor of the Pantheon was stunning! Marble of all different shades and colors and patterns. The art and altars in there were cool too. I even signed the book in there. :) My name is permanently in the Pantheon.
We eventually decided that we should eat cuz we were delirious and exhausted so we somewhere found the energy to go find food. The restaurant we ate at had decent food but what really made the experience was the rain. (We were sitting outside.) All the waiters ran outside with umbrellas for the customers. It was quite the dining experience. We ended up back at our hostel and changed to go out with some CouchSurfers that couldn't host us but wanted to go out. The five of us (Jana and I and three of them) went and got a drink and then they showed us this little hole-in-the-wall club where we danced for a couple of hours. It was a lot of fun! Jana made the mistake of wearing a really low-cut shirt and the Italians are just unabashed about staring. One of the guys that was with us started dancing with me and it was fun, cuz he actually dances unlike the Germans, but I had to explain that I wasn't interested and was just dancing. He then told me I was beautiful. Can't blame him for trying right? Anyway, we got back to our hostel around 3:00 and had to get up at 6:00 to pack and catch a plane to Athens. I was not very happy about that but shit happens. All in all, my first impression of Rome was that it was dirty and busy and I wasn't very impressed. Then we hung out with Andrea and saw the Colleseum and the Roman Forum and went out with the Couchsurfers and it turned out to be much better. I actually ended up liking Rome, it just wasn't instant like Florence or Venice.

Europtrip: Piazza della Signorio, Florence

Some of the statues in Piazza della Signorio. They needed their own
post. I found names for some of them.




















The Rape of the Sabine Women













Hercules and Cacus

Eurotrip: Florence

Florence. I totally could have spent more time here. So freakin cool! As I said, we got up early (6:30) to catch a waterbus to the train station to catch our train to Florence. It had been cold and rainy in Venice and when we got into Florence, it was warm and sunny. Felt so good! We got in around 13:00 and met up with our CouchSurfer, Lorenzo, and went back to his apartment. It was so cute! Jana and I slept on this little pull-out couch that was not meant for two people. It was worked out though. We met his roommate, Luigi, and I laughed at how italian their names were. We walked across the River Arno and explored that area of town, even though it was late and none of the touristy things were open. We just kind of peeked in at things. We drank wine on the steps of Piazza Pitti, walked all the way up to Chiesa di San Miniato al Mante, a church at the top of the Florence. And it is a long walk to the top of Florence. Good exercise I suppose, although my feet were really mad at me. We looked over the city at Piazzale Michelangelo, where a bronze copy of the David is. The view and the David are amazing! Both things were so cool. The view was one of the most amazing things I've seen in a long time. We ate dinner near the Ponte Vecchio, the only original bridge to survive the bombings of WWII. The food was again amazing and Jana fell in love with the three Italian boys who sat next to us. That actually happened alot on our trip. After dinner, we went to iL Latina, the restuarant where our CouchSurfers worked, and got a free dessert (this orange schapps and biscotti) and hit on by all the workers there. The restaurant had these hams hanging from the ceiling and people would buy them and cook them...or eat them....I really had no idea what was going there. It was odd. Luigi walked us home and we went to bed exhausted, as usual.The next day we got off to later start. We first walked to the Dom, which is such a cool church! So pretty. It was raining outside, which was less than fun and made taking pictures a little hard, but still amazing. We then walked to the church San Lorenzo and by the Medici residence, where we found this really odd little toilet exhibition. I was intrigued and confused. After that, we hit the Academia, where the real David is housed. Such an amazing experience! It was...mind blowing, how stunning this thing was. Michaelangelo was a god. Or one of the world's best geniuses. Or both. I also happened to get a picture of it, which was not allowed. The guards suspected me but I didn't get caught so it's all good. So ridiculously cool.


Our last day in Florence was really sad. :( We really only saw a tiny fraction of the city and I would love to see more. We walked to Piazza della Signorio, where all sorts of cool originals statues are. The David used to be there but then it got struck by lightning in 1532 (I think that's the exact date) and was damaged so they moved it inside, restored it, and put a copy. The amount of crazy cool statues there kind of blew my mind. We walked over Ponte Vecchio again and got our stuff from Lorenzo and Luigi, got lunch with them, said goodbye, and went on to Rome. :)

Eurotrip: Venice (and some Mainz)

Hey guys. I have been really bad about updating you, which is bad for me now cuz I have two weeks of awesomeness to blog and it's a lot of information. Here goes.

So Jana and I did a two week tour of Europe. Well, a small part of Europe. We went through Venice, Florence, Rome, and Athens. It was amazing! I'll try to keep the blog posts succint but we'll see how successful I am at that. So, Venice.
Getting to Venice was kind of an adventure. Because Munich is no fun to fly in and out of, we went up to Mainz to fly out of Frankfurt Hahn. We knew it was Carneval season, we just didn't know Mainz enjoyed Carneval so much. We also didn't count on Rosenmontag. I'll get to that. So we get in on Sunday, crash with our CouchSurfer, and decide to walk around a little bit cuz it was still early. We ended up walking into this massive celebration, complete with the weirdest costumes, a live band, and lots of carneval rides and lights. It was sensory overload. I had no idea what to do with it. So cool to see. The live band was really good too. We retired early cuz everything was winding down and it was a Sunday night.
The next day we get up, pack, head out to figure out how to print tickets and catch the bus to the Airport. Turns out it's Rosenmontag. Rosenmontag is the Monday before Ash Wednesday and basically the most important day of Carneval. So the entire city of Mainz was shut down and there were people everywhere! It was a madhouse. After several hours of trying to find a printer (successful) and trying to figure out how\when\where\if the airport bus came (also eventually successful), we end up at the Airport and fly to Venice.
Venice. Absolutely beautiful. We get in, find our hostel (near the Rialto Bridge), drop our stuff off, and go to dinner at this restaurant called Pane e Vino (bread and wine). The food was really good and the waiter fell in love with me. Well, my hair. He kept running his hand over whenever he would walk by. It was amusing. We then found this little street party in one of the squares and danced for a bit. It was a lot of fun.The next day, Fat Tuesday, we got up early and went to San Marco Square. We saw the Basilica and the Doge's Palace. The Basilica is stunning! So beautiful. The entire inside, all the murals, are made of tiny pieces of tile. So so meticulous. The sketches and models for it also blew my mind. Just a really cool place in general. We bought some sandwiches and ate lunch in San Marco Square and walked through the Doge's Palace, which now houses four museuems. Really cool, extensive collections. That more or less took up our day and we cooked dinner that night, basic pasta (which we were embarrassed about it Italy, cuz you know, it's Italy and their food puts my cooking skills to shame). We went out later with Alex, the owner of the hostel, who was a mask decorater and artist and who fell in love with Jana. We went to San Marghareto, where there was a massive street party. Again, lots of fun. We got dressed up for Carneval even though it was kind of cold outside. We danced for awhile then went back and crashed. Carneval in Venice is ridiculous. So much fun and ridiculousness.
On Wednesday, we were supposed to meet up with someone from CouchSurfing who would show up around but that didn't work out so we walked to the Jewish Ghetto ourselves and wandered around for a bit. We again ate amazing food (the seafood is great in Venice!) and the Jana proceeded to get us lost. That meant that we walked ALL over Venice. ALL OVER. It's a great place to get lost in because everything is beautiful and all the canals are fascinating. It's really unlike any other city in the world. However, that much walking hurts. I was so happy to get back to the hotel room. We found a little restuarant to eat at, where apparently Jana discovered how good Lasagna could be. Then we went on the hunt for internet. We ended up stealing internet in a back alley near the morning fish markets. It was quite amusing. We go back to the hostel and hang out with Alex for a bit. We painted glue masks and he showed us some of his designs. We had to get up mad early the next day to go to Florence so we went to sleep early-ish and were very sad to leave Venice. It was a beautiful place.