What a long strange trip it's been...

Wow, I can't believe I haven't updated this in the last few weeks, but I've been literally everywhere. On my last day in Athens, I headed over to Cape Sounion to see the Temple of Poseidon. It's about an hour from Athens, but the ride over there is absolutely beautiful. Once you get to the cliff, it's just a ruin of a temple.

It's a very beautiful view of the sea, and legend has it that it's where the Aegean Sea was named. The temple is decently enough preserved, considering how old it is. There are etchings all over it where people have written their names. Lord Byron signed his name here, but it's in a spot that you can't see without going in. Wanting to be respectful of the boundaries (at this point at least), I didn't sneak into it.

After Athens, I took my last flight of the trip to Rome. I hate flying, but I ended up enjoying this flight because I got into a conversation with a few people from California that were all together on a trip to study the beginnings of Christianity. They had been in Turkey and Greece and were finishing things off in Rome before returning to the US. They were incredibly nice. One of them was named Mary Grace.

Once I arrived in Rome, I checked into my hostel and ended up heading to the Colliseum. I met a great couple from San Francisco, and together we wandered around the ancient structure. The fact that it was January 20 was not lost on us. The Colliseum was pretty cool, and we tried to get into the Roman Forum, but could not find the entrance until it was closed. From there, we went to the Fountain of Trevi, which is easily the most beautiful thing in Rome.

Afterwards, I went to the Pantheon, the 2000 year old structure that was converted to a church. It's where the artist Raphael is buried, and it's quite spectacular.

It's hard to believe that I saw the Acropolis two days before seeing all of this stuff, but after so long you get used to being overwhelmed on a daily basis. It's very strange. On my walk back to the hostel, I ended up at the Colliseum again, which looks better at night.

See what I mean?

That night, I made friends with a group from my hostel that had been living in Dublin. They were from everywhere (Spain, Brazil, Lithuania), and we went out with a friend they had from Italy. The next day, we all went to the Vatican together.

I enjoyed the Vatican Museums, especially the Egyptian Museum. I knew they had a huge collection, but it's beyond explaining. They really do have everything. Of course, considering that it's the only institution to actually survive through as much as it has, they would have to have everything.

Apologies for the blurriness.

Oh, and yes, the Sistine Chapel is one that you have to see to believe. But it hurts to look up that much.

Afterwards, I went into St. Peter's Basilica. It's gigantic and spectacular of course, and it's the most beautiful church I've ever seen. Prior to this, I preferred the Tyn Church in Prague and Notre Dame in Paris. It's hard to believe how much effort is put into these things. And the St. Peter's is the center of Catholicism. It's beyond explanation. I'm not very religious at all, but it's remarkable to see this kind of thing. I also went into the museum underneath the Basilica, which has a frustrating audio guide that goes on for forever, but you see some really valuable stuff. Also, it had John Paul II's robes. But yeah, the Vatican was cool.

And to top if off, Michaelangelo's La Pieta is right by the door.

I took a long walk back to Termini from the Vatican, taking a look at the Roman Forum before going back to my room and reading.

The next day I went to Florence, which is called Firenze in Italian. I wish I had known that before the day I went there. I made friends with a guy named Alan from Chile on the train. The first place we went to was Accademia, where the statue of David is. Here's another bad picture that I took against the rules.

The hostel we went to was amazing, providing dinner and breakfast and free walking tours of the city. We did a walking tour, seeing one of the palaces in town and learning about some of the history of Florence.

After that, Alan and I went around with a guy from Turkey named Aykut, and two Chilean girls named Valentina and Carolina. We went to the Piazza of Michaelangelo and found a monastery turned into a church.

We headed down to the Uffizi Museum, where I may have gotten arted out.

Florence was cool because of the people I met there and the hostel I stayed in. The history of the city's quite amazing, but it seemed a bit stuck in the past. However, the Duomo still looks amazing.

The next day, I headed to Venice. I met a Canadian on the train who was incredibly cool. I was on my own again, at least for a little while. I had no idea what to expect from Venice, other than canals. After going to Amsterdam and Copenhagen, I thought I had an idea of what to expect. I was completely wrong.

Venice, to me at least, is the most beautiful city in Europe. The intricate labyrinth of the city is chaotic but perfect. You never know where you're going, and I got lost immediately. The cool thing about Europe is that in a lot of cities, it's okay to get lost. Everywhere, even with a little bit of graffiti, is gorgeous. It's hard to describe.

There's not much to do there that you can't do anywhere else, unfortunately, and things cost a bit more. The hostel didn't provide much, although it really was a guest house. There was a Canadian in my room, and she had a similar sense of humor. We talked about how ugly Venice is.

At 12:00 on Sunday, I met up with Aykut, Carolina, Valentina, and Alan. All of us (except Alan) went on a gondola ride (very expensive, we ended up paying 15 euro each for 30 minutes, but when the hell else am I going to do that?).

I hate the look I have on my face in this picture.

We wandered, ate, and wandered some more. Alan ended up staying in the same room at my hostel, but the others left. That evening, I hung out with Heather (the same Canadian girl) and two other Canadians, who had just come from Munich.

On Monday, I went to Salzburg, which took forever by train. I had to switch near the border, and I couldn't see anything outside by the time we got in Austria. I had a great conversation on my first train with a woman from Italy named Stephanie.

When I arrived in Salzburg, I got online briefly and went to bed. Because there was only one time a day that I could get from Venice to Salzburg, I essentially only had one day there. The hostel seemed nice though. I wondered how much I'd get done.

The first place I went to in the morning (this was Tuesday, January 27) was Mozart's birthplace. I had been planning to go to Salzburg for over a month at this time, and I had picked the date arbitrarily, not realizing that I was there on MOZART'S BIRTHDAY. So I was in the room where the musical genius was born on the day he was born. They've turned it into kind of an art exhibit, which was strange but really kind of poetic at times.

I found lunch afterwards. This is where the return of my beloved sachar torte is.

So delicious.

Afterwards I went to the place where Mozart lived, and saw a lot of his stuff. It was really cool, and they had a temporary exhibit on Haydn and Mozart's relationship. It had to close early, because of the concerts they were having that day. It was the Mozart week festival, which is apparently quite a big deal. They love their native son, even if he wasn't crazy about the place. I liked it.

I then journeyed to the fortress. They had some kind of inclined shuttle thing that you could take up the mountain, but I'm not sure if it was even running. I wanted to walk anyways, so I took the hike uphill. Twasn't easy, and that's when it started to snow. A lot.

The fortress was beautiful, and the museums they had in there were just plain cool (not literally, it was a comfortable refuge from the cold). They had lots of armor, and the place had been there for centuries so they had relics from medieval times.

(cue Lord of the Rings music)

I went to two of the three main museums there. I started to go into the Marionette Museum, but I think I was alone (you can never tell, those things are weird) and then I got scared (no TERRIFIED) of all the freaky puppets and I ran out of there almost as fast as I ran through Kanawha State Forest with Kelsey one time.

The last part of the fortress I went to was sort of a history of the place, which had an escort and an audio guide. It ended with an observation level, which the audio guide informed me had a "magnificent view" of Salzburg.

Yeah, it's terrific.

On the way down, I got a magnificent view of Salzburg. It's a very pretty town.

It does really look good in the snow.

Because the city's insanely obssessed with Mozart, I even ran into this guy:

It's a replica of a statue in Prague outside of the Estates Theatre commemorating Don Giovanni. I guess they felt they needed to replicate it in Salzburg too.

But yeah, after that I talked to my father a bit and when I mentioned that they had a concert that night he told me I absolutely HAD to go. It was Mozart's birthday, in Mozart's town, a festival to honor him, when else would I do that? So I went to the Mozarteum, which is very golden.

I'm sure you're tired of seeing that smile.

The concert was quite beautiful, with a guest clarinet player from Sweden. They played two modern pieces, along with one piece by Mozart and another by Haydn. All of it was good, although the highlight was probably the Haydn ending.

The Mozarteum

After Salzburg, I hopped on the train and went to Munich. My hostel there was cool, and the city was pretty neat itself. I'd go back to Munich in a heartbeat. I got to see Riccardo, another student from last semester who's now working there.

I won't go into too much detail about all that I did in Munich, because that's another entry for this. I did a walking tour, which told me a lot about the history of the place.

I met more people there than I've met in most other places. I hung out with an American (who I actually met in Florence), several Canadians, several Australians, and two Irish guys who do fantastic Michael Caine impressions. The hostel had a fantastic bar and a great staff. I really enjoyed the place.

Of course, the highlight of Munich (for most people) is the fantastic beer. I'll leave you with that. I'm back in the Czech Republic, regrouping before classes start.

When I write my next blog, it will be about a place I went to in Munich called Dachau.