Mid Travels Part 2- Prague

Well this post is just gonna be a follow up to last one.  I left off on Sunday in Munich.  I'll try to get up to speed with where I am today.

Monday
-Woke up before the sun rose to go to the bus station in Munich.  We found our bus that would take us to Prague.  We were all pretty surprised at how nice it was, considering how cheap the ticket was.  The ride took us past some of Munich's landmarks that we didn't have time to see like the 1972 Olympic Park, the BMW factory, and the Allianz Arena.  The total trip lasted about 4 hours.
-We got to Prague around 12:30 that day.  Throughout the day of travel, it seemed that one small thing would go wrong with our initial plans.  Luckily the whole group remained very cool under pressure and no one freaked out.  The first challenge was finding an ATM where we could withdraw Czech Korouna.  This proved to be difficult since we didn't speak or read the language.  We then had to catch a tram to the inner city.  The ticket machine was out of order, so we had to wander a ways until we found someone selling tickets.  We finally reached the address of our hostel, only to find out we had to walk to another hostel in another part of town to check in.  Everything eventually worked out and we settled into our spacious studio apartment/hostel room that afternoon.
-We ate lunch/dinner at great Czech restaurant.  Czech food was very similar to German food- lots of meat and potatoes and great beer.  Aaron and I become beer snobs on this trip.  If it doesn't come from Germany or the Czech Republic, I'm not going to drink it.
-After our meal we walked to the Petrin, a large hill in the middle of the city.  We took our time and hiked to the top.  We sat on some medieval battlements on the hill and watched the city lights for about three hours.
-We returned to the hostel afterwards and got ready to got to the Karlovy Lazne, Central Europe's biggest dance club.  Karlovy is very unique because it has six floors, each with a different theme.  The first floor is dedicated to pop music, the second to techno, the third to retro and disco, the fourth to hip-hop, and the fifth to chill music.  Each dance floor was very unique and had a lot of space.  We spent most of the night at the retro floor, dancing on a light up floor to disco and 80s hits.  However, before we went dancing, we checkout Karlovy's basement floor, which is dedicated to an Ice Bar.  We bought a ticket for a twenty-five minute time slot.  We then filed into a room where we put on large jackets and gloves, and then were led into the bar.  The entire room was made entirely of ice and the temperature was kept around 20 degrees.  The bar was ice, the glasses ice, the chairs ice.  We all loved the experience.

Tuesday
-We got up pretty early and headed to Prague's Old Town.  From there we joined a free tour that led us through the major sites in the old city.  Our tour guide, Chris, was very knowledgeable and we learned a ton.  The best free tour I've ever been on.  We learned about Prague's shaky religious history, the golden age of Charles IV, the important Jewish history, and the occupation by both Nazi and Soviet forces.
-After the tour was over we walked up and down Wenceslas Square, a large street filled with lots of stores.  I bought a Czech hockey scarf.  It looked pretty cool, but more importantly it was necessary.  Prague was very cold both days.
-We walked across the famous Karlovy Bridge and entered the Prague Castle on the other side.  The Prague Castle is the largest castle in the world.  It doesn't really look like a castle.  It's more of a collection of different palaces on a hill.  We walked up the stairs and explored the Cathedral of St. Vitus.  This was probably the coolest church I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot of cool churches on this trip.  It was almost double the size of Notre Dame in Paris.
-We walked down from the castle and went to the John Lennon wall.  The wall was started during the Communist occupation as a protest by students.  Graffiti of John Lennon lined the wall and continues to this day.  Lots of cool imagery of Lennon as well as some of his famous lyrics.  I took a pen and added some of my own to the wall.
-We finished our last night at the Pilsner beer hall.  Pilsner light beer was invented in the region, and Prague is famous for it.  I ordered a big plate of barbecue ribs and was not disappointed.

Wednesday
-Woke up and slowly made our way to the Prague airport.  We booked our flight through a very cheap airline, Smartwings, so we were nervous that something would go wrong.  Luckily, everything went very smoothly, and we landed in Rome around 3:00.
-We checked into a hostel in Central Rome for the night.  We settled in and then got some great Roman pizza before checking out the Trevi Fountain.

On Thursday we made it to our new apartments in Rome.  They are very nice, a step up from the ones in Athens.  The neighborhood we are in is great- lots of restaurants and little shops.  I'll try to post a video of our apartment as well as the remaining videos from Greece.

Dan

Here's some pics from Prague:

The view over the river from our hostel

Crossing the river

Exploring Old Town

In front of the Astronomical Clock

On Wenceslas Square

On the Karlovy Bridge

Entering the castle

The view from the castle

Marveling at St. Vitus' Cathedral

The John Lennon Wall

One last great Czech meal

At the Ice Bar at Karlovy Lazne

Transition- Salzburg & Munich

Hello all!

I apologize I haven't been able to update the blog in a few days.  As I write this I am sitting in my new apartment in Rome.  But let's back up a bit.  Last time I updated the blog I was in Athens, awaiting class finals and getting ready for fall break.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
-Spent most of these days studying for finals and enjoying the last days in Athens.  We did some shopping for souvenirs.
-On our way through Plaka, we happened upon a movie set.  An entire block was closed and redesigned as a 1960's cafe restaurant.  Naturally we were intrigued.  We watched them shoot a few scenes a couple times.  Eventually we recognized the actors- Kirsten Dunst (Mary Jane from Spider-man) and Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn from Lord of the Rings).  It was awesome to see them shoot a scene, even though we were at a distance.  The movie is called the The Two Faces of January, and comes out next year.
-The entire group went out for one last taverna dinner.  We went to a place that played live Greek music.  The food was great and we danced the night away.

And now on to my mid-semester travels:

Friday
-We (Aaron, Kevin, Kayla, Becky, and myself) got up early to catch our flight to Munich, Germany.  We said goodbye to our neighborhood and made it to the airport on time.
-We landed in Munich and experienced another culture shock.  We always joked that living in Athens is like living in the late 90's/early 2000's.  Everyone has really bulky cell phones, the fashion seems a little off, and the music is very dated.  Germany was like stepping into the future.  Or at least 2012.  After getting out of the airport and feeling the crisp fall air, we all agreed that Germany felt like a bigger Minnesota.  It made us proud to have German blood.
-We took the train into the center of the city.  From this point, the others I was traveling with split off and went to their hostel.  I stayed at the train station to wait for my train to Salzburg, Austria.  Before heading off I had the best Burger King burger I've ever had.  I had been craving beef for about two months in Greece and their was nothing better.
-I got on my train without much difficulty.  The ride was about two hours, going through the German countryside.  I arrived in Salzburg around 3:30 and met up with Dan, Matt, and Jake, who are friends of mine from SJU studying there.
-I dropped my stuff off at their apartment and then we walked through the town.  What surprised me about Salzburg is how small it felt.  It's a pretty big city but you get the feeling that you are walking through a small mountain town.
-We ran into some other Johnnies in the main city center, including my good friend Ben who traveled to Austria from Ireland.  After walking through the center, we climbed a hill to look out over the city.
-For dinner, we went to the Augustiner, a large social hall with lots of food and great beer.  This was my first experience with the German/Austrian culture and I immediately loved it.  I ate some great sausage and then drank some of the best beer I've ever had.
-After exploring the city a little more at night, we headed to an Austrian pub to meet up with some other people.  A band was playing that night and it was a really fun atmosphere.

Saturday
-My train back to Munich was around noon that day, so we got up a little early to see some more sites in Salzburg.  We saw where Mozart was born, and then walked through the Salzburg fall gardens.
-I finally got back to Munich around 3 that day and I immediately checked into my hostel and met up with Becky, Kayla, Kevin, and Aaron again.  We had a big hostel room all to ourselves, which was a huge plus.
-We walked around Munich for about three hours, starting with the main square of Marienplatz, and then walking north to the English Gardens.  The gardens were huge, and the fall colors made them all the more beautiful.  We watched the sun go down over the city and then began heading back.
-We ate dinner at the famous Hofbrauhaus.  It may be a little touristy but there is a reason it is the number one attraction in Munich.  The food was great, the beer just as good, and the atmosphere was perfect.  It was one big hall with everyone eating and drinking and a German polka band playing songs in the background.  Every once and a while the band would play "Ein Prosit" and the entire hall would sing.  We learned the song in choir so I had no problem joining in with the Germans.  We thought Greek food was pretty good, but the German food blew it out of the water.  It was like having Thanksgiving every night.

Sunday
-We woke up early to catch 10:00 mass at Frauenkirche, Munich's most famous church and the former parish of Pope Benedict.
-After grabbing food at the bakery, we headed to the art district of Munich to go to a few museums.  Luckily for us, admission was only 1 euro on Sundays.
-We started with the Pinokothek de Moderne, a museum dedicated to art of the 20th Century.  I never really understood modern art, but luckily we had Kayla to explain everything.  Kayla is an Art minor, and she actually made me enjoy modern art.  We saw a lot of Andy Warhol and Picasso.  We also found an entire gallery by Hans Hartung.  Possible relative?
-After taking a break sitting outside, we went to the Brandhearst museum, dedicated to mostly modern art.  We saw a lot more Warhol and Cy Twombly.
-We walked back to our hostel and then went to Theresienweise, a large park and site of Oktoberfest.  The festival finished up last weekend, so it was like looking at the empty state fair grounds.
-We went to another Augustiner beer hall.  Again, the food and beer was excellent.

That's all I'm gonna do for now, I'll have updates on Prague in a little bit.

Here's some pictures from Salzburg and Munich:

Looking over Salzburg

More of Salzburg

At the Augustiner with Jake and Dan

Crossing the river in Salzburg

Arriving in Munich with Kevin and Aaron

Marienplatz

Enjoying the fall weather

Becky, Kayla, Kevin and I at the Hofbrauhaus

Contemplating modern art at the Pinokothek de Moderne

St. Paul's Church

Kevin, Aaron, and I at the Hofbrauhaus

Winding Down in Athens

Officially it's been 57 days since I left the United States.  Wow.  I know it always sounds cliche, but time really does fly.  This Friday, we will all depart Athens and continue our journey onto Rome.  The whole group is in a bit of shock that we already have to leave.  The good news: this means our trip isn't even half over!

This past week was a fairly normal week in Athens.  This was our first weekend where we didn't travel outside of the city, and it was nice just to relax and see the sites we haven't got around to yet.

Here's some little tidbits from the week:

Monday, Tuesday
-Carl and I continue to do the Insanity Workout everyday.  It still hasn't gotten easy, but it feels great after we're done.  We have to mop our floor every night due to the many puddles of sweat.
-In Theology, we were assigned to interview a Greek about religion and then write a paper about it.  The project was a little intimidating at first.  I walked around our neighborhood asking if anyone would be willing to sit down for an interview.  I went 0-5 on my first attempts.  The Greeks either were busy or didn't want to talk about religion.  I finally found a willing participant in a shopkeeper named Maria. We discussed the Greek Orthodox Church and her faith.
-Tuesday was Angela Merkel day in Greece.  The German Chancellor made her first appearance in Athens since the debt crisis.  Naturally, the city went on pretty much full lockdown, which meant no classes for us!  The Athens police prohibited protests and any form of gatherings in certain sections of the city.  Here's the map:

The red area is where the police lockdown took place.  Our apartment is right in the middle of that.  It was a very quiet day and evening.  We really didn't leave the apartment except to get food.









Wednesday
-We had our last class at the National Sculpture Museum for Art History.  Art has definitely been my hardest class.  Lots and lots of sculptures and artists to memorize.
-Went shopping for some souvenirs at Monastriaki.
-We had a guys night at our apartment.  We played Celebrity for about three hours and had a great time.

Thursday
-Volunteered again at the elementary school.  Had a good time teaching the kids how to play recorders.
-A busy day for classes.  We started with our seminar on music.  We then walked about three miles to the Keirameikos, an Ancient Athenian graveyard with our History class.
-After getting back from the cemetery, we met Father Stefanos, our Theology professor, and went on a tour of the churches of Athens.  We looked at all sorts of churches, dating from the 4th Century to the modern day.
-We went out that night and found a nice, quiet, courtyard bar.

Friday
-Went shopping around Syntagma and Monastriaki again.  After trying a homemade "Mojo" at a local cafe, we (Aaron, Miles, Josh, Kayla, and I) decided to climb Mount Lycabettus.  Lycabettus is large mountain in the middle of the city, visible from pretty much everywhere and much taller than the Acropolis.  The hike wasn't too bad, and the view from the top was great.  See pictures below.

Saturday
-Spent most of Saturday afternoon studying for our upcoming finals in Art History and History.
-We celebrated Nikki and Kaeley's birthdays Saturday night.


This week we have finals on Wednesday and Thursday.  Then it's off to Munich, Salzburg, and Prague!  I'm also gonna try to update my Youtube channel sometime this week with videos from Greece.  Anyways, here's a few pics from the week:

Dan

Sending in my absentee ballot

Father Stefanos teaching us about Byzantine Churches

Protests in Syntagma

On top of Mt. Lycabettus

Kayla, Josh, Aaron, and Miles on Mt. Lycabettus

Athens at night.

Seeking Out The Oracle

Γεια σας!

Another week come and gone, and only about a week and a half left in Athens.  I think the whole group is a little sad about leaving soon.  We've really grown to like the city and the surrounding areas.  Classes are starting to wind down and the weather is starting to cool (a brisk 85 degrees).  This week I finalized my plans for our week break between Greece and Italy.  I'm leaving Athens on October 19th and flying to Munich.  I'm immediately taking a quick train to Salzburg, Austria to stay with some friends from St. John's.  Then I'm heading back to Munich on the 20th and staying two nights with four others from our group.  We're then gonna take a bus to Prague and stay there two nights before flying to Rome.  It should be a lot of fun, and it will allow me to see a completely new part of Europe.

Here's the week recap:

Monday
-We were able to get free tickets to a musical concert at the ancient theater of Herodes Atticus.  The theater was built by the Romans in 161 A.D. right on the base of the acropolis.  The show was a tribute to legendary Greek composer, Manos Hatzidakis.  It had a full orchestra of bazouki players, a large children's choir, and the Greek Navy brass band.

Tuesday
-For Ancient History we traveled to the Pynx, where the Athenian assembly met in the 5th Century.  It was really cool to stand where democracy first started and where the great orator Peracles once spoke.
-For Theology, we followed Father Stefanos to the suburban town of Chaladri.  Stefanos is a priest at a large parish there.  He showed us around his church and we really got a feel for how an Orthodox parish is run.

Wednesday, Thursday
-Finally finished my book, "A Feast For Crows."  Luckily I found an English copy of the next book in the series at a Greek bookstore.
-Sean and I woke up early on Thursday to volunteer at an elementary school.  We helped out a 3rd grade music class.  The kids were a little crazy but we had fun teaching them how to play the recorder.  We're gonna go again this week and help out.

Friday
-Part of our group decided to spend our day exploring the 2004 Olympic Park.  We took the train out there and found a ghost town of athletic facilities.  It was a little eerie, as if the games ended yesterday and everyone just got up and left.
-The security at the complex was very loose, so we were able to explore just about everything.  We saw the outdoor pool where Michael Phelps won his first medals, the Velodrome, the indoor swimming and diving complex, and the main Olympic Stadium.  The architecture was very impressive.  They turned the stadium into a soccer field, where AEK Athens plays today.  We were able to get down onto the track.  We watched 2004 opening ceremonies when we got back to compare.
-Right across from the complex is the Athens mall.  It was originally a media center for all the major T.V. networks.  Now it is a really nice mall.  We shopped around a little bit for the rest of the afternoon.

Saturday
-We got up early to head on our excursion to Delphi with our history professor, Robert Pitt.  Delphi is about three hours away up in the mountains.  Along the way we stopped at the monastery of St. Luke's.  It was a small little compound in the mountains, built in the 13th Century.
-We got to Delphi by noon, and explored the lower sanctuary of Athena.  Afterwards we checked into our hotel.  We all had a great balcony view looking over the mountain valley.
-Robert gave us a lecture on Sparta in our hotel lobby.  We then all went out for a tavern dinner and drinks afterwards.

Sunday
-We headed to the upper sanctuary of Apollo.  This is where the famous Oracle of Delphi once presided.  People from all over Greece would head to this site to ask the Oracle for advice and for future predictions.  I asked the Oracle if there would be an end to the NHL lockout.  I didn't get much of a response.  The entire site is situated on a mountain, with spectacular views.  It's easy to see how this was such a holy place for the Ancient Greeks.  After exploring the area and the museum, we headed back home.

That's all for the update, here's some pics:

Dan

The 2004 Olympic Pool

Olympic Stadium, now a soccer field.

The Monastery of St. Luke

Watching the sunset from our hotel balcony.

The Temple of Apollo at Delphi

The Fire Islands

Another week come and gone.  I think it's safe to say that this trip is going way too fast.  I've enjoyed every minute and I can't believe it's already October.  The highlight of this week was my trip to Santorini.  I'll get to that in a second, let's just wrap up the rest of the week quick.

Monday, Tuesday
-For the first time all year, I actually had a lot of homework.  I guess I can't really complain.
-After living here for more than a month, we finally made it to the Acropolis.  We went for our Ancient History class and had a lecture in front of the Parthenon.

Wednesday, Thursday
-I mentioned it in my last post, but we witnessed the Greek riots in Syntagma Square.
-We visited the New Acropolis Art Museum for class.
-We were able to borrow a few guitars from the school.  They aren't the best, but it's been nice just to play around a little bit.

All right, now on to the weekend.

We spent Friday, Saturday, and Sunday on the island of Thira, otherwise known as Santorini.  It is a volcanic chain of islands.  The volcano is in the center, with other islands around it to create a circular caldera.  All of the cities on the island are built into very tall cliffs.  Santorini is famous for its white washed buildings with blue roofs, and their donkeys used by locals to get up and down the cliffs.  To get to the island, we had an 8 hour boat ride.  Here's the approximate route, with stops on Paros, Naxos, and Ios on the way.  The entire group went on the trip, with the exception of our director.

Friday
-Our boat left at 7:20 from Pireaus, so we had to wake up at five in the morning in order to get there.
-The seats on the boat weren't the most comfortable, but I was able to sleep for the first few hours.  The ride was long, but we passed the time with playing games and having a long conversation with some very friendly Swedish businessmen.
-We arrived in Santorini around 4:00 that afternoon.  We took a bus from the harbor to the main city of Fira, where our hotel was located.
-Our hotel was very nice.  A great pool with little houses scattered around it to form a little hotel village.
-The whole group met up to decide what to do that night.  Trying to plan for 30 different people became frustrating, so Josh and I broke away from the group and walked around town.  We didn't make it two blocks before we found an ATV rental shop.  We couldn't resist, and rented an ATV for the whole weekend.
-We drove the ATV up the North coast of the island to a town called Oia.  We had dinner at a nice fish cafe overlooking the harbor while the sun went down.
-We got back together with the group later that night.  It was our friend Aaron's 21st birthday, so we spent the night in the main town at a great little bar.

Saturday
-After eating breakfast at the hotel, we walked into town and took a gondola down the cliff to the harbor.  We bought tickets for a tour of the volcano.
-Once we reached the volcano island, the tour gave us an hour to hike up to the top of the mountain where the active volcano is situated.  It was a tough hike up, but we made it to the top and got to look into the crater of the volcano.  The ground was hot and smoke leaked out of crevasses in the rock.
-After the hike, we got back on the boat and went to another island to swim in the hot springs there.  We got to dive right off the boat into the ocean, then swim into a cove where the water gradually got warmer due to the spring.  After a little while there, the boat took us back to the main town.
-The rest of the group decided to follow our example and rent ATV's as well.  We all rode them down the South coast to the Red Beach, made up entirely of red volcanic rock.  We spent all afternoon swimming in the crystal clear water and jumping off cliffs.
-We ate dinner at a small tavern looking out over the caldera and watched the sunset.
-We got back to the hotel late, but we had a fun time just hanging out.

Sunday
-We had to leave the island around 2, so we spent the morning shopping around the town and seeing anything we missed.
-Another long boat ride back, we finally got back to Athens around 12:30 in the morning.

That's it for now, it's been a pretty busy last few days.  Next weekend we are visiting the ancient site at Delphi.  Here are some pictures from the weekend below:

Our hotel in Fira

Driving the ATV up the coast.

The harbor at Oia

Eating dinner and watching the sunset.

Looking into an active volcano.

Swimming at the hot spring.

Arriving at the Red Beach

Dinner along the coast.

The town of Fira

Trying to sleep on the way home.