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.

When we last met our hero...

When I last updated, I was in the artsy world of Madrid. Nowadays I'm in Athens, but I shall retrace my journey a bit, with pictures.

I'll start with Barcelona, even though I've talked about that a bit, because I need to post some pictures from there. It's a beautiful city, very lively with art and what not. The most interesting part is probably La Rambla, which is the main shopping/cultural street. You can find anything there that you'd find in Barcelona, including live animals.

I've already gone into detail about the art I've seen lately, but the most unique work of art in Barcelona was Gaudi's Parc Guell. It was full of really random things.

Anyways, as I said I took the AVE train to Madrid after a few days of Barcelona beauty, and I got to see the beautiful Spanish countryside.

Madrid is a different kind of city from Barcelona. It's more like London. There are lots of things to do in Madrid, but it's less about the character and more about the power of the place. I had a great time there, but it's less unique. However, unlike in Barcelona, they actually speak Spanish (Barcelona speaks Catalan, which is quite different) and I was able to manage a lot more there.

The first places I went to were the Botanical Gardens and El Prado. Since I've already discussed El Prado, I'll describe the Botanical Gardens a bit. In spite of the cold, and in spite of the fact that it was a day away from snow, most of the garden was green. I know they were mostly evergreens, but it was kind of beautiful.

I know the picture's crooked, but you get the idea.

The other main photogenic area of Madrid that I got pictures from was Parque de Buen Retiro, a beautiful and gigantic park near the museums. Everything in Madrid is rather close together; it's nice. But yeah, the first time I went to this park (I went twice, it was too pretty), it was snowing. And it snowed a lot. The entire park was covered in a layer of snow/ice/sleet that was extremely slippery. And I went twice.

Like I said, the park was lovely. Madrid was a very nice place. Spain in general was awesome. The food, the culture, everything.

After Spain, I took a flight from Madrid to Mallorca, and then a flight from Mallorca to Copenhagen, where my friend Eirik lives. I've always wanted to go to Scandinavia, and Denmark was a fantastic start.

Most of the places I've been to like to overwhelm you, but Copenhagen's not that kind of a city. It's large, it's beautiful, and it's cold, but it's got a great charm. The town within a town, Christiania, is still the most unique place I've ever been. It's a society independent of society. Unfortunately, this counter-counter-counter-culture area doesn't allow photography. Instead, I'll show you what everyone goes to Copenhagen to see:

Yes, she's there. Although she's not easy to find. Eirik gave me some directions to it and I found the general area, but it took me about 40 minutes to find that tiny statue. Still, it's a very peaceful place.

After seeing Eirik in Copenhagen, I flew to Istanbul to meet up with my former roommate, Vefik. Vefik lives in Ankara, but he encouraged me to meet him in Istanbul. Turkey is another world for me. It's easily the furthest from home I've ever been. Hell, most of it's in Asia, which is completely foreign (relatively speaking, I'm the true foreigner wherever I am) to me. But yeah, Istanbul is awesome.

We stayed near Taksim Square, one of the major hubs of the gigantic city. It's huge, and usually quite crowded. Istanbul in general can be described by that sentence. Take, for instance, the Blue Mosque.

It's from the 1500s, and it's so different from the rest of Europe in that it's a MOSQUE. But yeah, the architecture in Istanbul comes from all over. It's one of the oldest cities of all time (used to be Constantinople), and a lot of its architecture predates that of Europe. For instance, the Hagia Sophia:

This building was originally a church, before churches were supposed to look like cathedrals. It's older than most West Virginians (I said MOST). When the Ottomans took over, they painted over all the Christian images and turned it into a mosque, and most Turkish mosques are modeled after this one. When Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, secularized the country, he turned it into a museum. They recovered some of the ancient Christian art (the paint preserved it quite well), so half of it's a mosque and half of it's a church. It's insane.

We also did the Basilica Cistern, which was a beautiful underground water reservoir. It had an old statue of Medusa. The place in general was creepy as hell. Vefik was really creeped out by it. We also had a lot of really good Turkish food, and for an hour or so we went to the Asian side of the city. Oh, and the Grand Bazaar was ridiculous.

(not in Asia)

But yeah, with Copenhagen and Istanbul I had great people with me. Vefik and Eirik are incredible awesome for all the help they gave me. It's been so weird travelling by myself, and they made it awesome while they were with me.

And so after getting used to having a travel companion, I set off to do Greece on my own. Given all that's been going on here lately, I was a little bit nervous about being in Athens alone. But as long as you stay in the tourism areas, it's fairly safe. I'm still being very careful.

After the awesomeness of Turkey, I wondered what their Greek rivals would have for me. The answer: more awesomeness (I'm a great wordsmith, I know).

Yesterday, I attempted to go to the Acropolis (and the Parthenon and all that), but they recommended that I come back today because it was free. So I walked up the Hill of the Muses instead.

Today I went to the Acropolis, the Parthenon, Ancient Agora, the Temple of Zeus (and other ancient things in the vicinity) and then the old Olympic Stadium used in the 1896 Olympics.

The Parthenon is being reconstructed again, so there was a lot of scaffolding around. The museum was also not reopened yet. Still, it was amazing.

This was in Ancient Agora. It was built sometime around 400 BC, and it's one of the best preserved temples of its kind. It's for Hephaistos.

This is the Hadrian Arch, which was built as a border for Athens. Now it's in the middle of a modern looking street.

I'm a big mythology buff, so this place brought a lot of that back. When I was in Junior High, I loved reading the Iliad and the Odyssey. Seeing where those gods were actually celebrated is unbelievably freaking cool.

The highlight for some reason was the Temple of Zeus. I was able to get this picture by asking some German tourists. That's the Temple of the Olympian Zeus, with the Parthenon on the hill behind it and the Hadrian Arch slightly hidden.

After all the mythology, I headed over to another side of town taking the train to the site of the first modern olympics. It's a still functioning stadium, and although I'm not a sports fan, I can appreciate it. The only thing that's weird about it is that there's nothing there. No museum that I could find, just a few statues.

So yeah, this has obviously been an amazing trip so far. One more full day in Greece, and then I move on.

Art!

So far on my trip, I've seen a lot (let me emphasize, a LOT) of art. In Amsterdam, I went to the Van Gogh Museum. In Barcelona, I went to the Picasso Museum. Here in Madrid, I went to El Prado, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, and the Reina Sofia Museum. I've seen works by Van Gogh (duh), Picasso (duh), El Greco, Goya, Dali, Liechtenstein, Man Ray, and all kinds of others. I've unintenionally started teaching myself about art. Surprisingly, I'm enjoying it.

I've been to tons of art museums before. I went to two in Vienna, I've done the Metropolitan Museum of Art twice in New York City, and I've been to the Museum of Modern Art in NYC as well. MOMA in NYC is probably my favorite. But that's because I was able to take this picture:

Ever since I was a kid, I've loved Van Gogh. However, these last few weeks have given me a better appreciation for art in general.

Both the Picasso and the Van Gogh museums focused on their particular artist, showcased a huge amount of their work, and showed how they developed and grew as artists. The Van Gogh museum especially showed how the area he was in and the situation in his life could manipulate how he perceived things. In his last few years, he was really going insane and his art reflected it.

I'm not an expert. I've never really studied art, but I have a newfound appreciation for it, as I've already mentioned. However, as my girlfriend and I have discussed many times, I definitely feel that just because something is artistic doesn't make it good. Cinema especially bothers me in this field. There is such a thing as bad art. If there's no point and nothing is said and it's not entertaining, people will feel that it's bad. For me, cubism drives me insane most of the time. I feel that it's a step backwards from greatness a lot of the time. On the other hand, there are some great cubist paintings.

Today I saw Guernica, which is easily my favorite Picasso painting that I know (and I'm not a huge fan of his other stuff), and I got chills. The Reina Sofia Museum does a great job of building it up for you. It has several sketches and plans that he drew before actually attempting the thing, and it shows photos of it as a work in progress. It's a masterpiece in every way, because he actually organized the chaos.

Another painting I was familiar with was Goya's Third of May 1808. It's a famous picture of inhuman brutality (kind of like Guernica, only it's a bit more realistic). It's another HUGE painting, and it goes better with the painting it was supposed to go next to, like in the museum. I dunno, when I saw this in a textbook it meant nothing, but now it means a lot after seeing it.

Speaking of Goya, I saw this in a textbook as a child, and it scared the hell out of me. It's Saturn, or Cronus, depending on how you want to look at it, eating his children because he's afraid that one of them will overthrow him. Of course, one of them ends up being hidden from him and ends up becoming Zeus the Almighty, but that's just how the story goes. But yeah, I had never thought of it in a political context, and it's as fascinating and disturbing as ever. When a government is destroying its own, it's acting out of fear of retribution. I know it seems kind of obvious, but I'm a slow thinker sometimes.

El Greco is one I never really cared much for until seeing his works in person. They almost leap out at you, it's great. My only problem with Rennaissance paintings is that they all seem to be about the same thing (that Jesus guy). And other than the occasional genius, they all seem to be painted the same way. I dunno, this guy just feels kind of like William Blake. It's great.

Finally, there's Dali. I fell in love with Dali a while back, and he's still as great as ever to me. I could have used more Dali, but oh well. This one made me laugh. It's called "El Enigma de Hitler", and for some reason, it cracks me up.

Yeah, I know I'm not an art critic, but it's a newfound fascination for me.

The journey so far...

First, I met up with my father in London at the airport. It was wonderful to see him. It's been over 3 months since I saw anyone I knew, and seeing him was a breath of fresh air. We went on the Rock n Roll Tour, which showed us all sorts of places that have changed music over the years. It was really cool. Afterwards, we headed to the West End and saw The Mousetrap, the longest running play ever. It was really good, and it shows no signs of stopping anytime soon.

The next day, our main tour began and we headed to France. We saw the white cliffs of Dover from our ferry, and got to Paris around 6ish in the evening. It's a very enchanting city. We ate at Montmarte, which was wonderful. The service and the food was excellent. We saw the Sacred Heart and the Moulin Rouge. The next day we saw the Louvre (just the outside), Notre Dame (beautiful and really cool to be there on Christmas), the Eiffel Tower, and various other parts of Paris. It's a wonderful place.


After that, we set off for Switzerland, where we stayed in the town of Grindelwald. We headed up to the top of some of the Swiss Alps, including the "Top of Europe". I nearly froze to death, but the area was surprisingly awesome. I got a really bad cold and ended up feeling kind of miserable on our way out of there, though.

We stopped in Boppard on the Rhine River, but I was asleep for the entire night we were there.

Then we went to Amsterdam. We did the Anne Frank House, the Heineken Brewery, and the Van Gogh Museum. It was kind of awesome, but it's the most indulgent city in the world. Absolute chaos. Especially for New Years.

Afterwards, our tour ended and Dad and I went to London. We saw the Tower of London, St. Paul's Cathedral, and we rode the Eye. The Eye of London was a surprisingly good highlight of the trip. I was terrified going up it, but I really kind of loved it once we got on.

On Sunday, we said our goodbyes and Dad flew back to the US. I went to Dublin, for the first part of my "alone" section of my journey. It was a really nice little town. I ended up touring the Guinness Brewery, the Jameson's Distillery, and Old Kilmainham Jail. I got lost at one point, eventually making my way back but exhausting myself in the process. I went to a comedy show, where they made fun of me for being American. Good times.


After Dublin, I flew to Barcelona. That city was amazing. It was like an art museum as a city. I saw the Picasso Museum, the Parc Guell, La Rambla, and Port Vell. I'd go back in a heartbeat; it was wonderful. I had hoped to practice some of my Spanish there, but they mostly speak Catalan in that area.

I took the AVE train to Madrid, which was essentially a flight on the ground. It's one of the fastest trains in the world, and it was kind of awesome. Madrid so far seems cool; I've done El Prado (lots of Goya and El Greco), the Botanical Gardens, and I've been to the Plaza Mayor. We'll see what I do here in the next few days.

Until then, Ciao!

So I'm sitting in Prague, wrapping up an insanely busy last few weeks of a semester, preparing to embark on more than a month of heavy travel. I'm going everywhere, and I really can't wait. I'm going to see my father, I'm going to see some of my friends from school, and I'm going to be in a zillion places. Should be spectacular.

The last few weeks have been intense. We shot several projects, barely having time to do anything else. After classes were officially finished, we still had shooting to do. Eirik left on Thursday, and Riccardo and Vefik left on Friday. Pisek was surreal as hell without them.

So I went to Prague. I took the GRE on Saturday (I did a lot better this time) and was able to relax on Sunday. Today, I went downtown and did a bit of shopping, among several other things.

But yeah, I'll try to update this as much as humanly possible over the next few weeks to give details about where the hell I am.

No hay nada aquí hoy

First I said I'd update this once a week, then once every few weeks, and now it's been almost a month. Wow, I'm awesome.

We've shot a music video, which you can expect to see online probably next week. We also shot a report, and we may shoot one more thing before Christmas. We've had some new classes, and school's generally been all right.

But let's be fair, I'm overdue on a blog about my grandfather.

My grandfather, Cecil H. Underwood, passed away over a week ago. His health had been on the decline for a long time. In a lot of ways, it's a relief.

I knew my grandfather well in a lot of ways, but at times he seemed like a mystery. Before I left, I kind of knew I'd be missing his funeral, so I said my goodbye to him in private. Part of me felt like I was running away a little bit, but I know he'd be okay with where I was at his service. Chris, my brother (pictured above) was able to read a statement from me at the memorial service (thanks Chris), so I did what I could to express my feelings.

Granddad was a public figure in West Virginia. He was a political figure, and while he didn't always win, a lot of people knew who he was. And it definitely looks like people liked him. Every time his health failed, it somehow got to the news media, which always bothered me. Granddad was a very private, quiet man. Unfortunately, being abroad, I had to deal with the public figure part of him first. I knew that something was going on, but couldn't get ahold of anybody, so I ended up checking the Charleston newspaper, which already had a story on it. Four hours after his passing, and they had interviews and statements. It was a bit surreal.

And while I'm not sure it's necessarily a good thing that they had as many cameras at a memorial service as they did, I was able to stream it live online and see how it went, for the most part. It was a lovely service, and everybody that I could see did a wonderful job. Granddad would be a little embarrassed at all the love, but he would appreciate it.

Also, my brother and my uncle Craig look too alike. When Chris got up to talk, I wasn't sure who he was until he spoke. I realized that it looks a little bit like a family of Lex Luthors... I'm not saying we are though.

But yeah, Granddad's passing is sad, but things happen for a reason.